LIBRARY

OF CALIFORNIA

.-^

A LIFE

OP

CLEMENT L \

ALLANDIGHAM,

BY HIS BROTHER,

REV. JAMES L. VALLANDIGHAM.

BALTIMOEE:
TUKNBULL BEOTHEES,

8 NORTH CHARLES STREET.
1872.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1872, by

TURNBULL BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I— ANCESTRY.

PAGE

First Ancestor in this Country— Great-Grandfather— Grandfather-
Father — Maternal Grandfather— Mother, .... 1

CHAPTER II— BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS.

Nativity— First School— School Companions— Studious Habits—
A Good Shot and a Successful Fisherman— The Discomfited
Joker — Adventure on the Eastern Shore of Maryland —
Reminiscence of Rev. C. V. McKaig— A Characteristic Com
position, 9

CHAPTER III— COLLEGE LIFE.

A Student of Jefferson College — Principal of Union Academy in
Snow Hill— Letter of Judge Franklin— Letter of Irving
Spence, Esq. — Re-enters College — Chosen Debater of the
Franklin Society — Rules for Moral Culture— Difficulty with
the President of the College — Demands and Receives an
Honorable Dismission — Commences the Study of Law —
The Contest at College— Tribute of the Rev. F. T. Brown, D.D.
— Recollections of the Hon. Sherrard Clemens— Offered his
Diploma, 19

CHAPTER IV— ENTRANCE ON POLITICAL AND PROFESSIONAL CAREER.

First Political Speech— Speech at New Middletown— Discussion
with the Whigs— Rencounter on the Streets of New Lisbon—

IV CONTENTS.

PACK

His First Speech to a Jury while a Student of Law — Ad
mitted to the Bar — First Speech after Admission — Great
Success as a Lawyer — Fixed Rules, 32

CHAPTER V — IN THE LEGISLATURE OF OHIO.

Elected a Representative — Rules for Conduct as a Legislator —
First Speech — Eeport on the Eligibility of Officers of the
State Bank to a Seat in the Legislature — Report on Legis
lative Districts — Speech on the Bill to Repeal the Ohio
State Bank Act — Speech on the Sanctity of Cemeteries —
Speech on the Tax Bill— The True Statesman Delineated—
His First Vote — Courtesy to Opponents — Canvass of the
County for Re-nomination — Nominated and Elected — His
Marriage — Second Session in the Legislature — Unanimously
Supported for Speaker by his Party — Resolutions and Speech
on the Mexican War— The Wilmot Proviso— Votes to Reject
Petitions for Dissolution of the Union — Popular Education —
The Black Laws — His Reputation as a Legislator — Declines
a Re-nomination, 39

CHAPTER VI — REMOVAL TO DAYTON, AND EDITORSHIP OF THE

" EMPIRE."

Takes up his Residence in Dayton — Becomes Law-Partner of T.
J. S. Smith, Esq. — Editor of the Empire — His Salutatory Ad
dress—Editorial on Politics and the Pulpit — Editorial on
Dorrism — Valedictory — Candidate for Judge, 53

CHAPTER VII— EVENTS FROM 1850 TO 1855.

Abolitionism — Compromise of 1850— Meeting in Dayton Opposed
to it — Meeting in its Favor — Letter of Judge Crane — Reso
lutions — Mr. Vallandigham a Warm Friend of the Compro
mise — Candidate for Nomination for Lieutenant-Governor—
First Nomination for Congress— Fails of Election— Journey
Through Virginia and Maryland— Nominated for Congress

CONTENT S . V

PAGE

in 1854 — Knownothingism or Americanism — Charged with
Being a Knownothing— Defeated— Speech on Abolitionism
in 1855, . 61

CHAPTER VIII— ELECTION TO CONGRESS IN 1856, AND CONTEST
FOR THE SEAT.

-Nominated for Congress by Acclamation — Result of the Election-
Notice of Contest— The Ohio Rebellion— Mr. Vallandigham's
Argument before the U. S. District Court— The Result-
Prosecution of the Contest before Congress— Report in his
Favor — Adoption of the Report and Admission to his Seat-
Again Nominated and Elected— ^Speech on the Impeachment
of Judge Watrous — Speech on the Tariff— The John Brown
Raid — Mr. Vallandigham's Letter in Regard to it — Excite
ment in the Country, .88

CHAPTER IX— THIRTY-SIXTH CONGRESS.

Meeting of Congress— Helper's Book — Attempt to Elect a Speaker-
Mr. Vallandigham's Speech — Speaker Elected— Free Trans
mission of Newspapers — The Hour Rule — Arming the State
Militia — Goes to Charleston — Incident There — Letter to his
Brother — Visits Home — Speaks at Detroit — Re-elected to Con
gress — Card to the Enquirer — 2d Session of Congress — Letter
to his Wife — Speech in Congress — Mr. Sickles on Coercion —
Border State Meeting — Central Confederacy — Serenade and
Speech— Visits Richmond— Letter to his Wife— Another
Letter — Amendment to the Constitution — Misrepresented —
Vote on the Compromise Measures — Denunciation and Reply
—His Personal Peril— Private Circular— Letter to his Con
stituents, 127

CHAPTER X— THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

Meets on the 4th of July — Violent Excitement— Mr. V. speaks on
Executive Usurpation — Affair at Camp Upton — Favors Equal
Rights to the Jews — Vol. Army Bill — The Crittenden Resolu
tion—Military Academy Bill— Convention of the States—

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

Seizure of Mason and Slidell — Surrender of Mason and
Slidell — Legal Tender Bill— Hickman's Assault and Repulse —
Retort on Wade — Attempted Censure — Greeley Petitions —
Democratic Address — A Lull in the Storm — Bursts Again —
Threatened Arrest — Speech at Dayton — Renominated for
Congress — Defeated, and the Cause — Cane Presentation-
Jubilee Meetings — Meeting of Congress— Resolutions — Speech
of Jan. 14 — New Party— Debate on Conscription, . . 164

CHAPTER XI— THE ARREST.

Congress Adjourns — Mr. V. speaks in Philadelphia— In New York —
In Connecticut — His Welcome Home — Military Orders —
Speech at Hamilton— Letter to Mr. Sanderson — Speech at
Columbus — Meeting at Mt. Yernon — Account by Mr. Irvine —
In the Banner — In the Crisis — Rumors of Intended Arrest —
Assault on his House — Carried to Cincinnati and Imprisoned
— Excitement in Dayton — Letter from the Prison, . . 231

CHAPTER XII— TRIAL, &c.

Officers of the Commission — Charge and Specification — Examin
ation of Witnesses — Mr. Yallandigham's Protest — Finding
and Sentence — Character of the Commission — Habeas Corpus
— The Result — Indignation Meetings — At Albany — In New
York City— In Philadelphia— Effect of These— Application to
the Supreme Court, 262

CHAPTER XIII— EXILE AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1863.

Mr. Y. on the Gunboat Exchange — Parting Address — Interview with
Gen. Rosecrans — Carried to the Confederate Lines — Incident
at Shelbyville — Discussion about Receiving Him in the Con
federacy — The Democratic Convention at Columbus — Mr. Y.
Nominated for Governor — Resolutions — Committee to Wait
on the President— Their Letter — The Result— Comments
Thereon — Mr. Y. Leaves the South for Canada — Narrowly
Escapes Capture— Reception in Canada — Speech at Montreal
— Arrives at Niagara Falls — Address to the Democracy of

C 0 N T E K T S . Vli

PAGE

Ohio — Enthusiastic Political Meetings in Ohio — Goes to
Windsor — Keception — Letter to the Dayton Meeting — An
other Letter — Vallandigham's Birthplace — The Result of the
Election— Defeated by Fraud— Mr. V.'s Letter Thereon—
Letter to his Wife — Visit of the Students of the University of
Michigan— Address to Them— Manner of Life in Exile, . 296

CHAPTER XIV— RETURN FROM BANISHMENT.

Attempts to Return, and Fails — Letter of Dr. Walters — Telegram
of Mr. P.— Note of Mr. V.— His Disguise— Crosses the River,
and Enters the Cars — Narrowly Escapes Arrest— Reaches
Hamilton — His Reception — Letter of Mr. McMahon — His
Address — His Welcome by the Democracy— Intends to Stay —
Illness of His Mother, and Letter to Her — Letter on Her
Death— Speaks in Dayton — In Syracuse, New York— Attends
the Convention at Chicago — Supports McClellan in the
Campaign, . . ... . . . . . 347

CHAPTER XV — PARTISAN PROSCRIPTION AND THE SONS OF LIBERTY.

Evil Passions Engendered by the. War — Regrets since Expressed by
Republicans— Mr. V. Proscribed— Arbitrary Arrests— Free
dom of Speech and of the Press Assailed — Organization of
the Sons of Liberty— Mr. V. Solicited to Join Them, but
Refuses — Again Applied to, and Consents — Object of the
Organization — Mr. V. made Grand Commander — Prevents
Abuse of the Order — Denounces the Attempt to Pervert It —
His Speech at Peoria, Illinois, 369

CHAPTER XVI— PATRIOTISM AND LOVE OF THE UNION.

A United States Man— False Charges of Disloyalty — Testimony of
Mr. McCullough— Of Rev. Dr. Brown — Sentiments of Promi
nent Republicans — Mr. V.'s Views — Opposition to the War —
This Not Disloyal— Illustrated— Testimony of Gen'l Ward—
Of New York Herald — Not Influenced by Southern Sympathy
— Not Regarded by the South as a Friend of Her Cause —

Vlll CONTENTS.

PAGE

Honest and Sincere — Letter to His Brother — To Mr. Perharn
— Reasons for Opposing the War — The War Unconstitutional
—Could be Averted— War a Great Evil— Especially a Civil
War — Relatives in Both Armies — War Could Not Restore the
Union — Denunciation of Abuses of Power, .... 886

CHAPTER XVII— EVENTS PROM 1865 TO 1870.

Effort for Peace — Letter to Greeley — Incident in Dayton — Death of
President Lincoln— Letter to the Young Men's Democratic
Association of Lancaster — President of the State Convention .
— President Johnson and the Radicals — Philadelphia Conven
tion—The Canvass of 1867— Speech at Mt. Vernon— Letter of
Mr. McCulloch — Senatorial Contest — Democratic National
Convention of 1868— His Nomination for Congress— The
Canvass, and the Result — Devotes Himself to the Law — Con
gressional Election of 1870, and Speech of Hon. L. D. Camp
bell—Mr. V.'s Speech to the Colored People, . . .402

CHAPTER XVIII— THE NEW DEPARTURE.

The Montgomery County Meeting — Speech of Mr. Houk — The Reso
lutions — Speech of Mr. Vallandigham — The Manner in which
the Movement was Received — Letter of Judge Chase — Ex
tracts from Different Papers— Opposition to the New Depar
ture—Defence by its Friends— Motives of Mr. Vallandigham
—His Last Political Speech, 430

CHAPTER XIX — HABITS OF STUDY, AND MENTAL DISCIPLINE.
Early Studious Habits— Letter of the Hon. S. Clemens— Extracts
from Letters to his Brother— His Theological Acquirements-
Letter from the Commercial— Mr. V. a Fine Writer— Letter on
the Training of his Son— Remarkable Interview with Colonel
Key, 450

CHAPTER XX — SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CHARACTER.

Illustrated— Letter to his Brother James— To ' his Sister— New
Lisbon and the Old Homestead— Letter to his Brother— To

CONTENTS. IX

PAGE

the same — Sympathy for Friends in Trouble — Letter to
his Sister-in-law — Deeds of Kindness — Letter to his Mother —
To his Brother — Slander Refuted — Extracts from several
Letters to his Mother — Letter on the Death of his Child-
Social Qualities— Personal Appearance— Letter to his Wife—
To his Son — Recollections of his Cousin, Mrs. Egbert, . . 46o

CHAPTER XXI— RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.

Early Religious Training— Religious Element of his Character-
Not Obtrusive — No Bigot— Letter to his Brother James—
Another Letter to the same — Note from his Mother — Letter
to his Mother — To his Brother — Becomes a Communicant
in the Presbyterian Church — Letter of Rev. J. H. Brookes,
D. D. — Withdraws from the Church, and the Cause — Attends
the Lutheran Church — Letter of Rev. D. Steck — Letter to
his Sister Margaret — Remarks Thereon — Letter to his Brother
— To his Mother — To the same — Letter of the Rev. John
Haight— Letter on the Death of his Sister-in-law, . . .492

CHAPTER XXII— His DEATH.

The Town of Lebanon— The Alleged Crime of McGehan— The
Trial— The Fatal Accident to Mr. V.— Account from the
Enquirer — From the Commercial — How the News was
Received in Dayton — Remains Brought to Dayton, . . 515

CHAPTER XXIII— THE FUNERAL.

Great Concourse — Universal Sorrow— Service at the House — The
Procession — Service at the Grave — Interesting Incident — The
Death of Mrs. Vallandigham, 536

CHAPTER XXIV— TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY.

Meeting of the Dayton Bar — Remarks of Judge Lowe — Of Hon. P.
Odlin— Speech of Senator Thurman— Of Hon. S. S. Cox— Of
Gen'l McCook— Of Hon. L. D. Campbell— Remarks of G. W.
Houk, Esq., and Resolutions — Meeting at Cincinnati— Speech

CON T E IN T S .

I'AGK

of Hon. W. S. Groesbeck — The Press on his Death — Boston
Post — Chicago Tribune — Cincinnati Volksblatt — Cincinnati
Volksfreund — New York Sun — Cincinnati Enquirer — Eulogy
of Hon. George H. Pendleton— Of S. W. Gilson, Esq.—
Tribute of Hon. J. W. Wall, . . . 544

PEEFACE.

To write the biography of a near and beloved relative is
a difficult and delicate task. This task I have with much
diffidence attempted, and I feel very imperfectly performed.
From my own personal and intimate" knowledge of the de
ceased ; from his letters and speeches ; and from the recollec
tions of many who were long acquainted with him: I have
endeavored faithfully to delineate his character.

To the friends who have aided me by furnishing facts, in
cidents, and recollections, I return my grateful acknowledg
ments.

To my son, James L. Vallandigham, Esq., of Hamilton,
Ohio, I am under special obligations, particularly in the polit
ical part of the work.

I am also indebted to the daily and weekly papers for much
valuable information. These newspapers, edited as they gen
erally are by men of ability and culture, with their intelligent
correspondents, devoting themselves to the business of collecting
and recording with fullness and minuteness events from day
to day as they occur, are the rich repositories to which bio
graphers and historians must necessarily resort to obtain much
of the material needed in the performance of their literary
labors.

Xll P B E F A C E .

From this source I have gathered information that could
be obtained from no other.

Should this volume prove acceptable, it may be followed
by another — a small one — containing Mr. Vallandigham's
Lecture on the Bible, and selections from his letters and
speeches.

I regret that I have not been able to prepare a more worthy
memorial of one admired for his talents, honored for his
integrity, and loved for his amiability with the warmest
affection.

J. L. VALLANDIGHAM.
NEW AKK, DEL., Dec. 20, 1871,

A LIFE

CLEMENT L, YALLANDIGHAM.

CHAPTEE I.

ANCESTKY.

THE ancestors of CLEMENT L. YALLANDIGHAM were, on
the paternal side, Huguenots ; on the maternal, Scotch-Irish.
From the family records, which have been made up with much
care and after thorough investigation, and are believed to be
accurate, we gather the following.

The family came from French Flanders. The original
name was VAN LANDEGHEM ; and some of the name lived
near Courtrai 570 years ago. They were knights then, and
one of them commanded a body of knights under the " Lion
of Flanders," at the battle of the "Golden Spurs," fought near
Courtrai in 1302.

MICHAEL VAN LANDEGHEM and JANE his wife, who were
probably the first of the name who came to this country, lived
in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1690. They afterwards re
moved to what was then Northumberland County, between the

2 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Kappahannock and Chesapeake Bay. There their son Michael
was born in 1705. This son, prior to 1738, removed to Fair
fax County, not far from Alexandria, where he became a lessee
of Lord Fairfax. He married Miss Anne Dawson of Nor
thumberland County. It was during his life that, for more
agreeable sound and easier pronunciation, the name was
changed from VAN LANDEGHEM to VALLANDIGHAM.

MICHAEL and ANNE VALLANDIGHAM had five children,
three sons and two daughters. GEOEGE, the youngest son
(the grandfather of the subject of this memoir), was born about
the year 1736, near Alexandria, Virginia. Having received a
good education, he spent several of his earlier years in teaching
as Principal of various High Schools and Academies in Vir
ginia and Maryland, meantime studying law and being admitted
to the bar. During this period of his life, as well as subse
quently, he pursued also the avocation of surveyor. About
1768 he obtained an appointment as Principal of an Academy
in Prince George's County, Maryland, where he resided several
years, marrying meantime (about 1771) Miss ELIZABETH
NOBLE, daughter of Mr. Joseph Noble, of the same county.
About 1774, accompanied by several families, his wife's rela
tives, he crossed the Alleganies to the country around Fort Pitt,
and selected and purchased a thousand acres of excellent land,
on Robinson's Run, then in Youghiogany County, Virginia,
but now in Allegany County, Pennsylvania. In the many
conflicts with the Indians which occurred at that time and in
that region, he took an active part. From Lord Dunmore he
received the rank and title of Colonel, and was with Dunmore
in the expedition against the Chillicothe towns in 1774. He
was with Colonel Broadhead in the expedition up the Allegany

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. V ALLAN DlCrHAM. 3

in 1779, and also with the same officer in the expedition against
the Delawares, on the Muskingum, in 1781. In his civil
capacity also he occupied a high and useful position in society.
He labored faithfully and extensively in his vocation as sur
veyor, was for many years a Justice of the Peace, and between
the years 1780 and 1800 pursued the practice of law in Pitts-
burg, Pennsylvania, and Wellsburg, Virginia.

Against the famous " Whisky Insurrection" of 1791-4, he
bore an active part, and suffered persecution accordingly. He
disapproved, indeed, of the excise, but thought violent and
armed resistance an improper and inexpedient mode of opposi
tion. He advocated remonstrance and repeal effected by
peaceable means, and accordingly, by way of example, drew up
and circulated a remonstrance against the law. He attended
and addressed various meetings of the citizens, and though
threatened with personal violence and the burning of his house
and barns, and the destruction of his other property, hesitated
not to avow his utter opposition to the rash and violent meas
ures proposed and adopted. His courage and fearless honesty
commanded respect, and though acting also officially in his
capacity of Justice against the insurgents, he escaped without
harm. Some years afterwards he was a candidate for Congress,
and partly from his opposition to the insurrection, and partly
because he refused to furnish the customary barrel of whisky to
the electors, suffered an honorable defeat.

In religion he was a Presbyterian, firm himself, tolerant of
others ; a strict observer of tjie Sabbath, regular in his attend
ance upon public and private worship, in heart and life, in walk
and conversation, a Christian. For the cause of education he
did all that the circumstances of the country and times per-

4 -LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

mitted, and was among the earliest supporters and patrons of
what afterwards became Jefferson College, where his second son
graduated, and where four of his grandsons and one of his
great-grandsons were educated.

He was very active and energetic both mentally and phy
sically; fluent in speech, and excelling in conversational
powers. He was amiable in disposition, earnest and firm in his
opinions, and diligent in the discharge of duty. Whatever he
willed he willed strongly, and whatever his hands found to do,
he did it with his might. Courage, as well moral as physical,
was a pre-eminent trait in his character. During the Insur
rection of 1794, a threat was made to tar and feather him, on a
particular occasion, in case he should appear and offer oppo
sition. Hearing of the threat, he went forthwith to the meeting
of the insurgents, addressed them in a long and earnest speech,
pointing out the folly and illegality of their course, and dared
them to execute their threat. He returned home unmolested.

Passing through a long and useful life, during which he
exerted always a controlling influence on all around him, he
died 011 the 4th day of October, 1810, at the house of one of
his daughters, aged about 72.

Perhaps an apology is due for so extended a notice, in this
place, of Col. Vallandigham : if so, it is found in the fact that
between him and his grandson whose life and character we are
about to exhibit, there were many striking points of resemblance;
and besides, we have thought that the many excellences of the
man, and the service which as a pioneer he rendered to the
region in which he lived, deserved recognition and memorial.
As far as we know, no sketch of his life and services has ever
been published.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 5

Col. Vallandigham, as we have before said, married Eliz
abeth Noble. She was a woman of intelligence, refinement,
and worth. Her mother's maiden name was Dent. Both the
Nobles and the Dents were of English descent, and were among
the earliest and most respectable settlers in the State of Mary
land.

Col. Vallandigham had five children, two sons and three
daughters. The second son, CLEMENT (the father of the sub
ject of this memoir), was born at the old family residence, near
Noblestown, then within the limits of Virginia, now Allegany
County, Pennsylvania, on the 7th day of March, 1778. He
was educated at Jefferson College, where he graduated in 1804.
There being at that time no theological seminaries in the Wes*-
tern country, he studied divinity under the private tuition of
the Eev. John McMillan, D. D., to whom many of the early
Presbyterian ministers of the West were indebted for their theo
logical training. He was licensed to preach June 25, 1806.
On the 14th day of May, 1807, he was married to Miss
REBECCA LAIED, of Washington County, Pennsylvania. They
immediately removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, and on the 24th
day of June following he was ordained and installed pastor of
the Presbyterian church in that place. There he spent the
remainder of his life, during the whole of that time officiating
as pastor of that church, and part of the time having also the
charge of the congregations of Long's Run and Salem. He
was a man of fine mind and a good scholar. His many virtues
endeared him to his friends, while so pure and upright was
his conduct that even his bitterest enemy could say nought
against the integrity of his character. Of no man could it be
said with more truth than of him, that " even his failings leaned

6 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to virtue's side/' One striking trait of his character was firm
ness. He would do whatever he was convinced was right,
regardless of consequences. Though naturally extremely sen
sitive, and therefore not indifferent to the approbation or censure
of those around him, neither the desire of the one nor the fear
of the other could induce him for a moment to swerve from the
path of duty. He was also distinguished for hospitality.
Although accustomed to entertain company to an extent that
by many would have been considered oppressive, and that
with his limited income he was ill able to bear, the friend and
the stranger always found a cordial welcome beneath his kind
roof and at his hospitable table. He was likewise remarkable
for amiability of disposition. He was a tender and affectionate
husband, a kind and indulgent parent, and a sincere and faithful
friend. To his faithfulness in the discharge of ministerial duty,
all who knew him bore witness. Hp shunned not to declare
the whole counsel of God. He was instant in season and out
of season. He attended faithfully to the stated ministrations
of the pulpit, and he visited his flock from house to house. He
was always ready to administer the balm of consolation to the
wounded spirit, to soothe the couch of disease, and to pay the
last sad offices which ministerial duty devolved upon him to
the departed. But the most important and estimable trait of
his character was his humble, unfeigned piety. His religion
was not an occasional impulse, but a steady, unwavering prin
ciple. His conduct, the fruit of it, was uniformly most exem
plary ; not only more so than that of most men, but more so
than that of most ministers. The writer, during a very long
acquaintance with him, never knew him guilty of a single act
by which his piety could for a moment be called in question.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 7

He died on the 21st day of October, 1839, "greatly beloved
and regretted by a people among whom his ministerial labors
had been eminently successful."

JAMES LAIRD (the maternal grandfather of CLEMENT L.
VALLANDIGHAM) was born in the county of Down, Ireland,
July 17, 1748. He was of Scotch descent. In the spring of
1766 he left Ireland for America, where he landed May 24, in
the same year. He settled in eastern Pennsylvania, and on the
17th of November, 1769, was married to Mrs. Martha Black, of
Lancaster County. She having died March 29, 1777, he was
married a second time, July 3, 1788, to Miss Margaret Jane
Sproat. In 1795 he emigrated from York County to "Wash
ington County, where he spent the remainder of his life, pur
suing the avocations of farmer and merchant. He died August
19, 1803, leaving six children, four sons and two daughters.
His sons were all men of more than ordinary talents, and well
educated : two of them were graduates of Washington College.
One of them became a distinguished lawyer, the other three
were ministers of the Gospel. His daughter REBECCA (the
mother of the subject of this memoir) was born in York
County, Pennsylvania, on the 20th day of April, 1789. Partly
at home, and partly in a Female Seminary in Washington, she
received her education. When quite young she was married,
and removed with her husband to what was then comparatively
a wilderness. A woman of superior intellect, of great energy,
and of devoted piety, she was indeed a help-meet for her hus
band in his arduous labors as a pioneer minister of the Gospel.
She managed the affairs of her household with wisdom and dis
cretion, and made her home to her husband and children and
friends a home of sunshine and joy. With wonderful tact and

8 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

skill she trained up her children and a large number of grand
children, who loved her with the warmest affection, and to whom
her memory is as " ointment poured forth," unspeakably pre
cious.

She died on the 8th day of July, 1864, esteemed and be
loved and mourned by a community in which she had lived
for nearly sixty years.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS.

CLEMENT LAIRD VALLANDIGHAM was born in New
Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio, on the 29th day of July,
1820. Of the seven children of his parents he was the fifth,
there being two sisters and two brothers older, and a brother
and a sister younger. This younger brother, a young lawyer of
great promise, died in 1850. The other brothers and sisters
still survive. His father received for his ministerial services
the amount of salary that was customary in those times — as
large perhaps in proportion as is received in the present day ;
but it was inadequate to his support. In order to make up the
deficiency, and for the purpose of preparing his four sons for
college, he established a classical school in his own house. This
school was continued first by his eldest, and afterwards by his
second son. Here were taught the Armstrongs, the Begges',
the Blocksomes, the Brookes', the Grahams, the Harbaughs,
the Hessins, the McCooks, the McKaigs, the McMillans, the
Richardsons, and others ; many of whom have occupied posi
tions of eminence and usefulness, as lawyers, physicians, min
isters, merchants, &c. Among them was the late General Win.
T. H. Brookes, a gallant officer in the Mexican war and in the
late civil war ; and Colonel George W. McCook, recently the
Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio.

10 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDlGHAM.

It was in this school that Clement pursued his studies pre
paratory to entering college, and even at that early age dis
played those abilities for which he was afterwards so greatly
distinguished. Before he was two years old he had learned the
alphabet, and when only eight commenced the study of Latin,
and by the time he had completed his twelfth year he had read
the whole Latin and Greek course, and was prepared for the
junior class in college. He was, however, considered too young
to be sent from home, and for a number of years he spent his
time in reviewing his studies, general reading, and in out-door
sports and exercises calculated to invigorate the body.

At this time he was accustomed, of his own accord, to rise
at 5 o'clock in the morning, both winter and summer, and fre
quently he devoted ten or twelve hours a day to study. The
writer has before him a little note-book kept by young Yal-
landigham when only sixteen years of age, in which is a mem
orandum of " Time spent in studying." In this he made an
entry every day in the most careful manner. As an illustra
tion, the following is a literal transcript of one of the entries :

"Monday, Jan. 23, com. 15 p. 5 A.M., quit 8; rec. 25
p. 9, quit 3 P.M.; rec. 30 p. 4, quit 15 p. 9; rec. 20 of 10,
quit 10. Total, 12.25 min." .

This careful memorandum of the hours spent in study he
kept from the 14th day of November, 1836, until the 25th day
of January, 1837.

Notwithstanding his studious habits as a boy, he was fond of
out-door sports, although never very fond of what the young
sters call playing. He much preferred going out gunning or
fishing, to playing ball, or any of the other games so eagerly
pursued, as a general thing, by boys. At an early age he be-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 11

came an excellent shot, and he was all his life a patient and
successful ^herman. At this time, as in later life, his patience
and perseverance excited the amusement as well as the admira
tion of his companions when he went on a fishing excursion.
Whilst those who accompanied him, if the " luck " was not
good, would soon become restless, and disposed to try first one
place and then another, he would choose his place, and remain
there with all the taciturnity and endurance of an Indian until
success crowned his efforts and rewarded his patience ; and it
was a matter of remark that however hopeless at first the pros
pect seemed, and disheartened his companions became, he
always managed in the end to catch some fish.

The adage that " the child is father to the man " is an old
and trite one. Its truth however is so undeniable that it is no
source of wonder to find that, among all classes of readers and
thinkers, there is exhibited a lively desire to learn something
of the childhood of one who has occupied a large space in the
attention of the public. The impression is strongly felt that in
some way those remarkable traits which have given a man dis
tinction or fame must have been displayed at an early period
of life, before the mind had yet matured, and before the expe
rience gained by contact with the world, in its various rela
tions, had produced caution, and the reticence and concealment
of feeling which are the natural results of familiarity with the
passions and the frailties of human nature. As a boy Mr.
Vallandigham displayed many of those characteristics which
afterwards attracted sometimes the admiration, and sometimes
the antagonism of his fellow-men. He was studious, ambitious,
courageous, and resolute ; ever more ready to meet opposition
half-way than to evade or propitiate. When only about twelve

12 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

years old he was one day walking down street in New Lisbon,
and was about to pass a crowd of rude boys upon tta side-walk.
One of them who was unacquainted with him, thought it would
be a good j oke to give him a fall. Accordingly, as young "Vallan-
digham was about passing, he suddenly thrust his foot out in
front of him for the purpose of tripping him. The quick eye
of "Vallandigham caught the movement, and halting but an
instant, he suddenly dealt the young ruffian a blow, so rapidly
delivered and so violent that the practical joker was laid upon
the ground half-stunned, and then without a word, or even
looking around, he calmly pursued the even tenor of his way.
"Who was that young fellow? who is he?" exclaimed the
astonished assailant as he arose to his feet. " Why, it's Clem.
"Vallandigham, and you had better let him alone," answered
his companions, which advice he was very willing to follow.

An incident which occurred to him when sojourning tem
porarily on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, serves well to
show the firmness of his character whilst he was still in years
a boy. He had been invited, along with several gay young
men, most of them older than himself, to a supper-party given
by a hospitable old gentleman of that most hospitable county
of Worcester. The host was a gentleman of the old school,
kind-hearted and jovial, but a little too much addicted to the
use of the "ardent." After a hearty repast, liquors were
brought in, and the fun soon became " fast and furious." At
this time, and indeed up to 1854, Mr. Vallandigham not only
did not drink liquor of any kind himself, but was considered
by some of his friends almost fanatical in his views upon the
temperance question. Accordingly he refused at the very com
mencement of this part of the entertainment to partake, and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 13

desired to excuse himself and return home, as his further
presence, under the circumstances, might be a damper to the
enjoyment of the company. But his host would not listen to
this, and he was assured that his scruples on the subject should
be regarded. But alas ! the promises of all men are uncertain,
and this is more especially true when those who make them
are in the habit of indulging to excess in the use of stimulants ;
and as the wine went round, and each one became more reck
less, it appeared as plain to our gay friends as if it were a reve
lation, that if Yallandigham would not drink of his own accord
it was their duty to make him drink, so as to introduce him to
the pleasures of Bacchus, and render him as jolly as they them
selves felt. In an instant he was surrounded by the jovial
youths, and they swore that the man who could drink and
would not, should be made to drink. Mr. Vallandigham now
found himself in a most embarrassing situation. The young
men were his friends, they were excited by liquor, all of them
high-spirited and brave, and now perfectly reckless, and they
were determined that he should drink. Most persons, rather
than seem ungracious, and some because of the danger of
refusal, would have submitted; but he was made of sterner
stuff. Not alone did his conscientious scruples urge him to
resistance, but he was incensed that forcible means should be
resorted to in order to compel him to violate the firm determina
tion he had formed. Extricating himself with a bound from
those who surrounded him, he drew his pistol and solemnly
warned them to desist, assuring them with earnestness and
emphasis that he would die before he would submit to the
indignity threatened, or disregard the opinions he had formed
and the resolution he had adopted on the subject of drinking,

14 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

by tasting a drop. This produced a momentary silence. The
young men were brave, but they saw there would be trouble,
and they stopped a minute to think. He then explained to
them the impropriety of their conduct, and in an instant peace
was made, and they all sat down satisfied. He shortly after
withdrew, leaving them to their carousal, which was kept up
to the "wee smaj hours," and returned alone to the village
whence most of the company as well as himself had come.

The Rev. Clement "V. McKaig, who in boyhood was an
intimate friend of Mr. Vallandigham, has furnished the fol
lowing recollections of his early days, which we think will be
interesting :

"It is now nearly 40 years since we attended the same
Academy — first when it was under the care of his venerated
father, the Rev. Clement Vallandigham, pastor of the Presby
terian Church, New Lisbon, Ohio, to whom it owed its origin.
We were together also when the Academy was taught by his
brother, the Rev. J. L. Vallandigham, then a recent graduate
of Jefferson College, Pa. During the largest part of the time
we were class-mates, and read together the principal portion of
both the Latin and Greek course. In this way I had an
opportunity to know him intimately. In person he was slender,
erect, symmetrical, and finely formed. He was of fair com
plexion, with a bright animated eye and speaking countenance.
Altogether he was strikingly handsome. In disposition he was
amiable, kind and generous, always cheerful, lively and social ;
on this account a general favorite in the school. In morals he
was remarkably upright and exemplary. I cannot now re
collect that he was addicted to any vice whatever, even of a
boyish nature. The excellent religious training and example
of the parental household seems to have impressed and con
trolled him to an extent quite unusual, and so shaped his life at
this period that it was to a high degree blameless. In the
class, as in all school exercises, he always stood high, because
he was both industrious and ambitious. Indeed, ambition to
acquit himself well, and even to excel, was a marked trait in his

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 15

character from his earliest school-days. I think no one in the
school manifested such a laudable pride of good lessons, or
showed so much manly honorable sensitiveness on this point.
He scorned the idea of laziness as well as inability, and looked
upon both as alike shameful. I remember when we were reading
Virgil and Horace, there arose in the class a good deal of strife
in reference to long lessons. The matter of long lessons was
encouraged by the Principal : some, however, protested and com
plained bitterly. But Mr. V., though the youngest, never ob
jected ; on the contrary, always cordially acceded to the largest
number of lines, and then came prepared to read the entire
portion that had been assigned. And from what I know of
him I am sure he would have sat up half or all the night for
study, had it been necessary, rather than have asked for lessons
any shorter. To be amply prepared for everything that was ex
pected of him, and to be fully equal to whatever he attempted,
was a noticeable feature in his character. Nor was it so much
pride as principle with him. He felt that whatever was re
quired to be done, could be, and should be done, and should
be done well ; and he never seemed satisfied with himself unless
this result was attained. If I mistake not, this feature and
habit also continued with him, grew with his growth; and
to it may be attributed, in an eminent degree, much of his
success in life.

" In his constitution there was a strong, flowing enthusiasm ;
and this, combined with a high order of talent and a vigorous
unwearied industry, gained for him the position of acknow
ledged superiority. Yet he never claimed such a position for
himself. He was high-spirited and aspiring, but never haughty,
or envious, or vaunting. His emulation was too frank and
generous to excite any jealousy. And withal he was so ready
to encourage and assist others, and so unassuming in regard to
himself, there was no struggle in reference to place, and no dis
pute in respect to merit or proficiency.

" Apart from all this, we might note here as characteristics
of mind belonging to Mr. V., activity, love of acquisition, readi
ness and vivacity of communication. He delighted to exercise
his gifts. He never shirked any duty. He counted nothing a
task that promised improvement. Composition and discussion,
disliked and shunned by most young students, were apparently
a pleasure to him. He was therefore uniformly ready, when
ever called upon, for composition, debate, and declamation. It

16 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

very early appeared that his tastes and talents had a peculiar
adaptation in this direction, and that in all his performances
there was infused such a life and relish that he must necessarily
in the end greatly exceL For one of his years he had read
considerable ; his memory was quick and retentive ; his imag
ination, if not brilliant, was chaste and prolific; his judgment
discriminating, his language pure, easy, and quite fluent, and
his manner pleasing and attractive. On suitable occasions,
whether before the school or larger audiences on ' Exhibition
Day/ he would often acquit himself with the highest credit and
acceptance. I recollect that at such times he would come forth
manly and graceful, full of energy and earnestness, face glowing
with youthful eloquence, his soul absorbed in his theme, his
thoughts or arguments fresh and striking, his utterance clear
and rapid. He was therefore sure to command appreciation
and admiration. Here undoubtedly was foreshadowed, not by
any means indistinctly, that element of power, eloquence and
oratory, which afterwards made him famous as a lawyer, and a
successful popular speaker. He never was a mere surface-
bubble, a thing to glitter and deceive, a tyro in knowledge.
He mastered whatever he 'undertook. He thoroughly inves
tigated whatever he attempted to elucidate. His knowledge
was accurate as well as comprehensive. He never attempted
to lead others, except as an honest, intelligent conviction and
careful examination impressed his own mind. Then he would
appeal to the reason and judgment rather than the impulse
and prejudice. In youth he was free from pedantry as well as
sciolism, and could never be charged with artful trickery in
displaying knowledge simply to create confidence or excite
applause."

A composition, written by him when sixteen years old, indi
cates the bent of his mind at that early age, and the ambition
which filled his soul with bright visions of future honor and
eminence :

" The necessity of exertion to secure intellectual eminence"

tl This is not a land upon which Nature has so profusely
scattered her gifts that we may live without labor. We inherit

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 17

no royal estate, no hereditary slaves toil for our subsistence
while we live in luxury and idleness. Our very existence
depends upon our exertion; and the maxim, Quisque suce
for twice faber, is here emphatically true. While exertion is
essentially necessary for our pecuniary prosperity in this
country, it is much more so to secure great intellectual emi
nence. As soon as we have finished our college studies we are
thrown upon the cold heartless world to struggle for ourselves.
If we have well improved our time and talents while we had
the opportunity, wTe may meet its frowns with indifference, or
return them with contempt. There is much to encourage and
console us while toiling over our dreary studies, in the reflection
that whatever we determine to be, by proper exertion we gen
erally may be. Demosthenes determined to be an orator, and
his success affords us the highest encouragement. Although
not fitted by nature for the profession which he had chosen, by
application and diligence he was enabled to overcome her
defects ; and now while the names of millions have been
buried in the ocean of forgetfulness, his fame gathers fresh lau
rels from the lapse of time. When we are tempted to give up
our studies in despair, let us remember that although exertion
may now be painful and fatiguing, we shall some day reap the
reward of our toil. The experience of both the past and the
present teaches us the truth of this observation. Although
almost all desire to rise to eminence in their lifetime, and to
leave to future generations some memento of their former
existence, few seem to realise its dependence upon themselves.
They appear to think that if they are destined to be great, they
will be so without any exertion on their part. Thus many,
whom application and study might raise to the highest pitch
of fame, deluded by this vain supposition, suffer themselves to
drag out their existence in a miserable mediocrity. Others
seem to think that the great design of life is to live in idleness
and pleasure. If they but have the means to gratify their
animal appetites and passions, they are content to live in ob
scurity without making one further effort. Thus they pass
their time in one continual round of pleasure and dissipation,
regardless of the future ; and when the hour of death approaches,
they find themselves dying without having done a single
action to perpetuate their names. Thus they descend into the
grave, ' unwept, unhonored, and unsung;' while those whose
exertions have secured them immortality and fame, are followed
2

18 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to the tomb by the tears and regrets of millions. 'Tis true the
bodies of both lie mouldering in the dust ; yet while the one is
buried in merited oblivion, the other will be remembered with
honor by the remotest posterity. Considering then the dif
ferent lot of the two, who would not prefer the latter ? Who
would not forego the trifling and contemptible gratification
which pleasure bestows, for the fame of Demosthenes, even
when purchased with such labor and toil ? Beauty will fade,
wealth will vanish, and pleasure gratify us for but a few short
moments, but greatness secured by exertion will never decay."

This composition as a literary effort may not be better than
many written by bright boys of the same age in the present
day, but it is rendered significant and worthy of consideration
by the after-life of its author. The line of conduct by it indi
cated was followed by him throughout his busy and varied
career, and the high and earnest ambition thus early developed
was the spur which continually urged him on to wonderful
exertion in his professional business and his political struggles.
Cardinal Wolsey, according to the immortal bard of Avon,
bade Cromwell " fling away ambition " : yet it is an honorable,
an ennobling passion, and when joined to a high sense of honor,
integrity, and great abilities, its existence is not only a blessing
to the possessor, but also to the generation in which he lives,
and sometimes many generations that follow. In solitary walks
over the beautiful hills of his native town, in constant and
close application to study, and in the practice of oratory in the
retirement of his own home, long before he had arrived at
man's estate, young Yallandigham was laying up those stores
of knowledge and acquiring that mental discipline that fitted
him for the busy and active and exciting scenes of his after-life.

CHAPTER III.

COLLEGE LIFE.

IN the fall of 1837 Clement L. Vallandigham became a
student of Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He
entered the Junior class, for which he was well prepared,
having read an extensive course in both Latin and Greek, and
being also well versed in the other branches requisite for
admission into that class. He remained for a year, diligently
and successfully pursuing his studies, and at the same time
taking a deep interest and an active part in the exercises of the
Franklin Literary Society, of which he was a leading member.
He would have returned the following year, but believing that
his father — with a large family dependent upon him, and
health somewhat impaired — could not well afford the means,
he resolved that by teaching he would himself provide the
money necessary to complete his education. Having accord
ingly obtained the appointment of Principal of Union Academy
in Snow Hill, Worcester county, Maryland, he removed to
that place in the autumn of 1838, where he remained for two
years. There he faithfully performed his duties as a teacher,
and at the same time endeavored to store and discipline his
mind by constant reading and study.

The Hon. John, R. Franklin a companion of his early
days, thus writes of him, in a letter dated Snow Hill, August
17, 1871 :—

20 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Your brother Clement and myself came to this place to
reside on the same day in the autumn of 1838 — he to take
charge of the Academy, and I to read law. His room and
mine adjoined, and we were as intimate as it was possible to be.
We were from the same college, our aims in life were the
same, and in our political principles we differed just enough
to give a spice to our social intercourse. His life here was
a veiy tranquil one, devoted to study and to the society
of his friends. I remember no incidents of importance by
which it was diversified. He was an undergraduate when
he came to this place, and he carefully kept up his college
studies ; but at the same time he was a diligent student
of history, and was in the habit of committing his thoughts
to writing. We had at the time a spirited debating society
in town, of which he was an active member. He prepared
himself with the same research and labor for our little tilts
as he afterwards did for the larger fields in which he was
called to act later in life. Indeed I think the great secret
of his power was that whatever the occasion might be, he
always made himself master of the situation. About this
time he acquired quite a reputation as a temperance speaker.
Some of his speeches were published and extensively circu
lated. The society of Snow Hill was then of the best. I
have seldom known a country village to possess so much
refinement and culture as were to be found here at that time.
He was one of the ornaments of our little circle, and partici
pated in all its gaieties. Even then he was a political student
— not of the newspapers, but of those writers who assisted in
framing the Constitution, and who have been its ablest ex
pounders. I well remember his familiarity with the Federalist.
It was the text-book of his youth, and he studied it thoroughly.
His principles then and afterwards were mostly drawn from its
teachings. You know how the whole country was agitated in
1840. I believe his whole family were Whigs ; certainly in
this place all his friends and associates, both male and female,
were of that party ; but he had based his creed upon a view
of the Constitution which was utterly at war with their prin
ciples and practice. And he stood up almost alone against the
tempest which in that day swept everything before it. His
whole life has been but an exemplification of the spirit which
he then displayed. If in a single instance he has ever swerved,
either under the allurements of office or when the unscrupulous

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 21

hand of despotic power was laid upon him, I have yet to hear
it whispered in any quarter. I think his best claim to the
memory and gratitude of his countrymen is that he never was
afraid to speak the truth."

Irving Spence, Esq., who was one of his pupils when he
taught in Snow Hill, in a letter dated August 28, 1871, thus
gives his recollections of him : —

" When Mr. Vallandigham came to Snow Hill as Precep
tor of Union Academy, I was only twelve years of age. I do
not think his age exceeded eighteen. Perhaps I was too young
to be a judge of character, but my recollections of some traits
which impressed me thirty years ago are so vivid now that I
must note them. The health of the Assistant Teacher in the
Academy failed, and he was compelled to give up teaching. The
advanced class in the Primary department, of which I was a
member, was placed under the charge of Mr. V. But I saw
much of Mr. "V., not only in the school-room, but at the house
of my mother and in the families of my relatives, where he was
a frequent guest.

" Mr. Vallandigham was a man of decided character : the
traits not only well denned, but strong, if not even stern. This
was so much the case that when he first came into our commu
nity — before he had reached his majority — his opinions and
convictions were as firmly settled as those of most men at thirty,
and he was ever ready to give a reason for his faith ; this fact
was remarked by all of his acquaintance here. He was not a
professor of religion, but a regular attendant at church service,
and always manifested the highest respect for ministers of the
Gospel and those who claimed to be Christians. He had a
fixed religious as well as political creed, and whoever attacked
either of these in his presence had a bold and well-armed op
ponent. In person he was remarkably handsome; of much
vivacity of temperament, affable in manner, and consequently
popular ; but extremely sensitive to opposition or ridicule, and
an insult he would not brook even at the risk of mortal issue.
In the school-room he exercised strict, perhaps I should say
stern discipline ; but he was often on the playground with the
fcoys, and took part in their sports, and his pupils loved him.
He had a high reputation as a teacher."

22 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

In the latter part of August, 1840, he left Snow Hill and
returned to his home in New Lisbon. After spending some
time with his relatives and friends, he re-entered college, be
coming a member of the Senior class. At that time there were
in Jefferson College two Literary Societies — the Franklin and
the Philo, and it was customary every spring to have a contest
between them in debate, composition, and declamation. Each
Society in the fall, or early in the winter, \vould choose its best
debater, composer, and speaker, and at the close of the winter
session in March, these contestors, as they were called, would
appear before the public and exhibit their performances, and a
committee of gentlemen previously selected would decide upon
their merits. Immediately after his return to college, Mr.
Vallandigham was unanimously elected debater for his Society.

It was about this time that he drew up certain " Rules for
Moral Culture." Whether they are original or selected we do
not know, but present them just as we find them in his hand
writing. They were evidently intended for his own guidance.

EULES FOR MORAL CULTURE.

1. Live in habitual communion with God.

2. Cultivate a grateful spirit.

3. Cultivate a cheerful spirit.

4. Cultivate an affectionate spirit.

5. Let not the attainment of happiness be your direct object.

6. Cultivate decision of character. Moral courage: Independence.

Duty to our NeigJibor.

1. Be honest. 2. Be generous. 3. Be open-hearted. 4. Be polite
(anecdote of the drover). 5. Be a good neighbor.

Claims of Society.
Requisites, to meet them.

1. A serious consideration of duties and prospects before us.

2. Intelligence. 3. Upright and virtuous character. 4. Public spirit.
5. Personal religion.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 23

Motives to urge a preparation to meet tJiese claims.

1. The qualifications demanded are within your power. The claims

2. Are fixed upon you. 3. The value of the interests soon to be
eommitted to you.

Avoid
1. The beginnings of evil. 2. Skepticism and infidelity.

1. Have an object in view: Aim high.

2. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

False Principles.

1. Of honor. 2. Of pleasure. 3. Of love of money. 4. Love of
applause (in extreme). 5. Cunning : Non-com mittalism. 6. Customary,
ergo right.

Fundamental Rule.
Principle of unyielding rectitude.

Why to be regarded.

1. Demanded of God. 2. Of invariable and universal application.
3. Of very easy application: Costs no study. 4. It commands respect.
5. The best policy.

Formation of Character.

1. Form a picture of what it ought to be.

2. Make the picture a reality.

3. Character to be formed in early life.

4. Alta petens : aliquid immensum infinitumque.

5. Associate with the virtuous and excellent.

Character is power — is influence.

CLEMT. L. VALLANDIGHAM,

fan. 10, 1841. Jefferson College.

Whether these " Rules " be original or selected, or partly
the one and partly the other, it is certainly remarkable that
they should have been adopted as the guide of his conduct by
one so young; and it is still more remarkable that they should
have been so strictly adhered to — that amid all the trials and
temptations of his eventful career they should have been so
strictly obeyed — so closely followed during the whole of his
life.

24 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

In the latter part of January, 1841, he had a difficulty
with Dr. Brown, the President of the College. The Doctor
was an able President and an excellent man, but he had his
faults. He was very positive in his opinions, and impatient of
any dissent therefrom ; and he was often hasty and impetuous,
and would say and do things which he would afterwards ex
ceedingly regret. He was, however, magnanimous, and as
soon as conscious of having done a wrong he would confess it,
and ask pardon of even the humblest student. The quarrel
between him and young Yallandigham originated in a recita
tion on Constitutional law. The latter advanced certain
political opinions to which the Doctor objected, and which he
endeavored to refute. Yallandigham replied respectfully, but
at the same time firmly and decidedly. The Doctor, incensed at
the assurance and « pertinacity with which he defended his
opinions, made use of language violent and insulting. This
Vallandigham would not brook, and immediately demanded an
honorable dismission. The Doctor promptly gave it to him,
and he returned to the old homestead, where his eldest brother
was then living, and with him commenced the study of law.

In March, though no longer connected with the College, he
went back to perform his part in the contest, and made a very
able debate ; but the decision was against him. The question
was one that involved the doctrine of State rights, and these
rights he maintained and defended to the fullest extent, and
writh the utmost boldness and earnestness ; and it is not im
probable that prejudice against these doctrines on th'e part of
the judges, though insensible to themselves, was the cause of
the adverse decision — a decision which certainly created great
dissatisfaction. This defeat, though no doubt keenly felt by

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 25

Mr. "Vallandigham, exercised no permanent influence on his
character or conduct. He still adhered to his political senti
ments, and he still resolved by energy, industry and perse
verance to seek and secure position and eminence in the future.
The following, originally published in the St. Paul Press,
is from the pen of the Rev. F. T. Brown, D. D., an intimate
college friend of Mr. Vallandigham : —

" The Freshman year of my college course was spent at Jef
ferson College, Pennsylvania, and soon after I entered there
returned there a young man who had left at the close of his
Junior year, two years before, and had been spending the in
tervening time in Maryland, teaching, to replenish his rather
scanty purse. He now re-entered as a Senior to finish his
course. His coming excited unusual interest, for he was con
sidered one of the most promising men the College had ever
had in training, and was the 'bright particular star ? of his
society — the Franklin. This was Clement L. Vallandigham :
a slender, hawk-nosed, eagle-eyed, handsome young fellow.
He took a room next to mine in a small boarding-house where
I was lodged ( ' Aunt Polly Paxton's/ well-known to all old
Jefferson boys), and we soon became intimate friends, though
he was a Senior and I a Freshman, and though he was a Frank
lin and I a Philo — both contrary to established college cus
toms. Our attachment was very strong ; at least I loved him
warmly. There was something very winning in him ; he was
handsome, gentlemanly, high-spirited, and genial, but quite
dignified and a little reserved ; he had few intimate friends,
and I never knew him to engage in any of the College sports.
He was a close student and stood high in his class, but his
greatest reputation was as a Society debater, in which he was
thought to have no equal in College. His morals even then
were so pure, and his life every way was so exemplary, that
many wondered that the son of ' old parson Vallandigham '
was not a member of the church. I was proud of his friend
ship, and in my personal attachment for him became almost
disloyal to the Society to which I belonged. I was not con
scious of this till the annual contest was coming off between
the two Societies (exciting in that college more interest than the

26 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

exercises of Commencement), when I found that, though a
Philo, my sympathies were strongest for the success of my
friend ' Clem./ who was one of the contestants. His Society
chose him by acclamation as their debater. His competitor
was a Mr. Mercur, now the Hon. Ulysses Mercur, M. C. from
Pennsylvania. The question discussed has always seemed to
me to have been prophetic of C. L. V.'s future political course.
It was, in substance (I have forgotten the precise phraseology) :
£ Is the tendency of the genius of the Government of the United
States toward a centralisation of power in the general Govern
ment, or in the individual States ? ' Vallandigham took the
side of the individual States, and under that banner he fought
to the end of his life. Of the merits of the debate I know
nothing. I thought at the time that my friend should have
had the 'honor/ but the three distinguished judges (Judge
McCandlass, of Pittsburgh, was, I think, one of them) thought
otherwise, and gave it to Mr. Mercur. Clem, bore his defeat
like a man, and went home to his brother's house at New
Lisbon, Ohio, to study law."

The following recollections are from the pen of the Hon.
Sherrard Clemens, who was an intimate friend of Mr. Vallan
digham in college and after-life, and who served with him as a
member of Congress :

" I became acquainted with Clement Laird Vallandigham,
some time about the year 1837, at Jefferson College, Washington
County, Pennsylvania, then under the Presidency of the Rev.
Mathew Brown. We were members of the same literary
society, and my attention was first drawn towards him by the
remarkable powers which he evinced in debate. We boarded
near together, and our intimacy soon matured into warm friend
ship. His mother and my mother we found to be old acquain
tances, and this ripened the association. He was a close stu
dent ; remarkably exemplary in his morals ; of great energy
of purpose and determination of character ; and of an ambition
which mated with the stars. His standing in his class was
excellent, and his mind of the first order. It was very easy to
see, even at that early period, that he was destined to reach a
high eminence in whatever profession he embraced; and his

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM" 27

standing among his fellows was that of an unquestioned leader.
His manners were open, genial and kind. He had a hand
open as day to melting charity. He was full of spirit and a
love of innocent amusement, and from all these combined qual
ities was deservedly popular among all the students. Accor
dingly, when the annual contest took place between the literary
societies, he was selected the champion of our Society. His
opponent was Ulysses Mercur, formerly a judge, and lately if
not now a member of Congress in the Lower House, from the
Erie District in Pennsylvania. The award of the judges in the
contest, in favor of Mercur against Vallandigham, gave great
dissatisfaction, and to no one more than myself. Vallandigham
was deeply chagrined and disappointed. He had set his heart
upon a triumph, and had invoked universal good-will among
his fellow-students ; and when the announcement was made that
he had lost the debate, we had a quasi rebellion.

" His whole career at college was a career of labor and
thought. He rarely sought outside relaxation, except in long
walks in the mornings and evenings ; and then his mind was in
tent upon some subject of moment, or something pertaining to
his course of study. He was but a moderate eater, and I do
not remember that I ever saw him, while at college, take a single
glass of liquor. While other students had their convivialities,
he did not, so far as I ever knew, join them. He seemed to be
arrayed in armor and have his visor well down, prepared for
the conflict of life, which he saw was not far off.

" At this time there was a large number of Southern stu
dents, liberally provided by their parents with money, and who
frequently went on sprees, to Pittsburg, Washington, and
Wheeling. These I never knew him to join. They often gave
oyster and other suppers, where wine flowed freely. These I
never knew him to take part in. He was sensitive and proud,
and he told me he would partake of no hospitality which he
could not return, and that he could not afford the means to do
it. He therefore kept aloof, and passed his time much more
profitably, carrying out his fixed determination to allow nothing
to interfere with his own elevation in life. His ambition was
early developed, and was with him an intense passion. He felt
everything depended upon him, and therefore upon himself he
lavished whatever of skill, labor, or art he could command* In
this he never appeared to relax. He seemed to look forward,

28 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

as with the eye of a seer, to the position he afterwards occupied
in the country.

" In his own way he was fond of diversion and play, and
his tastes were as simple and innocent as those of a child. In
his close devotion to study this mental relaxation was of great
service ; for he, attempted a system of close dietetic treatment,
under the plea that it would leave his mind the freer to act,
and for a time he fell off considerably in flesh ; but I argued and
ridiculed him out of this, and the exercise he took soon restored
all the weight he had lost.

" Perhaps it was from my close and peculiar association with
him, but I regarded him as by far the brighest intellect at Col
lege. He presented strong characteristics of his future career ;
and I predicted for him then, early and extensive eminence.
That ' the child is father of the man ' is in his case most con
clusively proved, for I know of no students who were college-
mates of his who have attained to the positions and who have
shown the same capacity to grapple successfully with the world
as he has done. He was in some respects eccentric, self-willed
and impatient of restraint ; and in anything he took very much
at heart, he was reckless -of opposition. This trait was early
developed, and I soon saw he was one of those persons who
could be persuaded with a hair but who could not be dragged
with a log-chain. This trait became conspicuous in his contest
with the Administration during the Civil War, in his exile and
his return. His passions were high, honorable, warm, and
often impulsive. A soft word would win him when hooks of
steel could not drag him to any object he did not approve.
His devotion to his mother was beautiful. She was the ocean
to the river of his thoughts. The evidence of careful religions
training was in all his acts.

" He was prudent in expenditure, moderate in his wants,
and entirely free from the small vices which so easily beset a
youth at the outset of his career. Without apparently seeking
popularity, he commanded it among the very class of his
associates who were utterly different from him in taste, man
ners and habits. He walked among them preserving his own
self-respect, and yet with an attitude of conscious superiority.
He was a fine classical scholar, and delighted in helping out his,
less favored or less studious companions in their translations.
I have known him to devote much time to this benevolent

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 29

work, to enable those to appear at class who had passed nights
of revelry and dissipation instead of devoting them to their
books. In this particular he was an unfailing source of relief;
and ' old Clem/ as he was popularly termed, never faltered in
it. The tribute thus paid to him was an almost unconscious
compliment not only to his innate good-nature, but to his well-
grounded scholarship. He did not act upon the philosophy of
Dean Swift's couplet —

" ' The lower you sink
The higher I aspire ' —

but he seemed desirous to lift them up to his own level, to
supply their deficiencies, and to put them on the path of success.
This outcropping of good-nature bore its fruits. He was a
favorite among those who generally seek their intimates among
those of like passions and frailties • and when the selection of a
contestant in debate came, and each one desired the strongest
man, they were among his firmest and most enthusiastic sup
porters. He had the faculty of making strong friends. He
was exacting in his love, as in his hate. He was what Dr.
Johnson termed a good hater. Capable of making any sacri
fice for his friends, he expected to find the same spirit in return.
This resulted from the very energy of his character, which was
wonderful. Undaunted by obstacles, courageous in the midst
of difficulties and dangers, unappalled by disaster, he went
right on to the accomplishment of an object in a mind some
what akin to that in Addison's Cato —

" ' ' Tis not in mortals to command success :
We'll do more — we will deserve it.'

It was this consciousness of enduring power that sustained and
upheld him amidst every discouragement. Sometimes he was
unusually despondent — self-poised, and his soul like a star
dwelt apart. But it seemed like his retirement into the dark
ness of a cave, the better to enable him to appreciate the light
and warmth of day.

" ' Yet when all our soul is weary
Of life's turmoil, pain and whirl,
And we strive to rend the curtain,
Lo ! we beat 'gainst walls of pearl !
We have missed the crystal doorway,

30 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Or the keys celestial fail.

While we wait without impatience

For the lifting of the veil.

When we pine with restless longing

Some long vanished form to view,

Seems this veil a luminous ether,

Saintly faces beaming through;

And we almost catch the whisper,

Soft as sigh of summer's gale,

Almost see the beckoning finger

At the lifting of the veil.'

"Whatever his own discouragements or disappointments
may have been, although he indulged in seasons of unusual
sadness, there was never a tone of unmanly complaint about
him; there seemed to run through his whole composition
that Calvinistic faith which bears the cross as a type and
symbol of regeneration and power. To be, to do, and to suffer
seemed the destiny of humanity ; and however dark the clouds
may have been over his own soul, they were curtained away at
last, and there stood out the eternal cerulean blue of the firma
ment studded with myriads of stars.

" This type of disposition seems to be common to all sturdy,
passionate natures ; at all events it was true of him at the
period in question. As his dejection was sometimes complete,
so his mirth was all-abounding and contagious. It was the
contrast of the sparkle of the fireworks as they go up and the
dark blackened stick as it comes down. At such time there was
an infinite sweetness and bonhommie about him. To adopt the
words of Emerson, ' there seemed to be a pool of honey about
his heart which lubricated all his speech and filled all his
actions with fine jets of the sweetest mead.' Every act of
struggling is in itself a species of enjoyment; every hope that
crosses the mind, every high resolve, every generous sentiment,
every lofty aspiration, nay, every brave despair, is at last a
gleam of happiness that flings its illumination upon the darkest
destiny. All these are as essentially a portion of human life
as the palpable events that serve as landmarks of its history,
and all these we have to compute before we can fairly judge of
the prevailing character of any man."

We have already narrated the circumstances that led to Mr.
Vallandigham's withdrawal from College within a few months

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 31

of his graduation. It is proper that we should here state that
Dr. Brown soon regretted the temper he had exhibited and the
words he had unadvisedly spoken which led to this with
drawal ; but there seemed no way then to rectify the error, as
it was well understood that Mr. Vallandigham would not,
under any circumstances, return to College.

Some years after, however, Dr. Brown wrote a letter ex
planatory and apologetic, offering Mr. Vallandigham his
diploma, on the single condition that he should apply for it to
the Faculty of the College. This he refused to do and so
never received his diploma.

CHAPTER IV.

ENTRANCE ON POLITICAL AND PROFESSIONAL CAREER.

MR. VALLANDIGHAM commenced the study of politics
when only sixteen years old, but did not become an active
politician till four years later. In the fall of 1840 he made
his first political speech. It was at a Democratic meeting in
Calcutta, in the southern part of his native county. He was
then rather tall, but slender, beardless, boyish in appearance,
but with the voice and bearing of a man. He spoke for an
hour with an ease and an energy that astonished the sturdy
farmers and mechanics that had assembled to hear the youthful
ocator. Their admiration was unbounded, and as soon as he
had finished they bore him off in triumph on their shoulders,
and from that time he was one of the leading speakers of his
party in the county.

Another of his youthful efforts was at New Midclletown, in
the northern part of the county, and to it he thus refers in a
speech made at the same place, August 9, 1867 : —

" I have been asked, Vhy select a village so comparatively
obscure — and I hope no offence will be taken when I speak of
it as such — and so far from the railroads which have sprung up
in the country since the olden time ? There are two reasons ;
and the first reason is, it was glorious old Springfield township
that, when I was a boy, saved the Democratic Congressman in
the district, and the Democratic county to which it then

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAH. 33

belonged, in the memorable campaign of 1840. Without
detailing circumstances which I have elsewhere related, permit
me to say that, confident of victory, the boy had remained out
late to hear the returns. Every township came in with a
Whig majority, and wre had begun to despair. At about
1 o'clock the Democratic party was beaten, and we all felt
badly. At about 4 o'clock, however, we heard the tramp of
horses7 hoofs down the hill from New Lisbon, and behold ! old
Springfield township had not only held its own, but had given
a hundred more of a Democratic majority than ever before, or
at any time since, which elected our Congressman by fifty-
two votes, and saved Columbiana County, to which it then
belonged, to the Democratic party for many years after. That
is to me a very pleasant recollection, and it was one of the rea
sons why I accepted your invitation. Very pleasant too is the
recollection that here, in New "Middletown, I made one of my
first efforts at public speaking. I shall not soon forget that,
when ' a youth to fortune and to fame unknown/ nevertheless
ready and willing to do my part and {)ear my share of the
burden in the great campaign between Clay and Polk in 1844,
I found myself announced at the tail end of a hand-bill in very
small letters as one of the speakers. The ( lions ' were all in
large type, as was becoming; but it was expected in those days
that young men would stand back and wait until near the
going down of the sun. The seniors spoke long and loud and
eloquently, until in my youthful jealousy, natural as it was, I
thought they meant to speak me out of time. The shadows
were falling long from these tall trees when at last all the
other speakers concluded and the ludience were about to
disperse, but some there were who resolved to stay and hear
the boy. I came to the platform as many of the wagons were
going away; still I had reason to be satisfied if a few were
content to stay, and it creates a sense of triumph even to this
day to remember that many gathered in their teams as soon as
I had commenced, and the crowd was larger in the evening
than it had been during the entire day."

It was customary in those days for the Whig and the
Democratic speakers to meet at various places in the county
and discuss before the people the points at issue between the
3

34 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

parties. In these debates young Vallandigham participated.
At first, the Whig orators, who were generally middle-aged
men — some of them gray-headed — were disposed to sneer at
the " beardless boy," as they called him ; but the spirit with
which he replied to their personalities, and the severity and
fearless energy with which he repelled their assaults, speedily
put an end to this. The knowledge which he displayed on the
subjects at issue, his fluency in debate, and his manly courage,
commanded their respect, and the ablest of them all soon felt
that in encountering the youthful speaker he met " a foeman
worthy of his steel."

It was during this period that he had a rencounter on the
streets of New Lisbon that is perhaps worthy of mention.
The night before the election he had addressed a meeting in
one of the neighboring villages, and in the course of his speech
made a playful allusion to Mr. G., a prominent Whig of
New Lisbon. The account of it was borne that same night to
Mr. Q., no doubt greatly exaggerated, for there was in reality
no just ground of offence in the remark that was made. Mr.
G., however, was incensed, and determined to inflict personal
chastisement; and arming himself with a heavy cane, as Mr.
Vallandigham passed by his door next morning he violently
assaulted him. The blow was aimed at his head, but Mr. Val
landigham parried it with his hand, wrested the cane from the
grasp of his assailant, and with it instantly felled him to the
pavement. Mr. G. was carried into the house bleeding and
insensible. In the meantime a crowd had assembled. Mr.
Vallandigham's friends led him away (a mob following with
clubs and stones) to the house of Mr. B., who, though a political
opponent, was a personal friend. There the wound he had re-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 35

ceived — a very slight one — was dressed, and he remained for
some time, the crowd outside clamoring for vengeance. Learn
ing however that he was needed at his office, he prepared to leave.
His friends, especially the ladies in the house, urged him to
pass through the back door and down a back street, for fear of
personal violence. This he refused to do : he was born, he said,
and had been raised in New Lisbon, and no man and no com
bination of men should prevent him at any time or under any
circumstances from freely walking its streets. Pie accordingly
went out in front, walked down Walnut street to his office, his
friends congratulating him on the way, and his enemies keeping
at a respectful distance. The effect of this was most salutary.
His enemies learned that he had the courage and the skill and the
ability to defend himself, and he was never afterwards molested.

The first law-case in which ho was engaged, and his first
speech to a jury, was when he was still a student of law, not
yet admitted to the Bar. His client on that occasion was an
honest old Quaker who had been grossly cheated in a horse-trade
by a cunning and unscrupulous horse-jockey. It was said by
a distinguished lawyer many years ago that there never was a
horse-trade without cheating and lying by tme or the other party
to the transaction, or by both; and indeed this seems to be
true, for the writer has known men who appeared to be con
scientious and to have a regard for veracity in everything else
except the negotiations pertaining to a trade of horses. Some
student of psychology should investigate this peculiarity of the
human mind : we have not time to enlarge upon it now, nor
even to suggest a theory to account for it.

The case was tried in Salem, Columbiana County. There
was great interest manifested by the neighborhood; and the

36 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Justice, finding his office entirely too small, adjourned to a
large carpenter-shop hastily fitted up for the occasion. The
shop was soon filled with an audience anxious to listen to- the
case, and who remained till after midnight to see the close.
The horse-jockey was defended by a lawyer of age and ex
perience, who was unsparing in his exertions and fought every
inch of ground. The whole day was spent in the examination
of witnesses, and it was late in the night before the argument
was commenced. The speech made by the beardless youth
Vallandigham astonished every one present. He spoke for
nearly an hour with the greatest force and earnestness. His
remarks in regard to the defendant and denunciations of his
dishonesty were so severe that, burning with wrath, he arose
in his place and threatened a severe castigation unless the boy
(Mr. V.) would desist, upon which young Vallandigham
defied him in the fiercest manner, and administered such a
rebuke to the bullying jockey that the latter wras glad to get
away from the sound of his voice. This trial, though the
amount involved was small, was long remembered in the
neighborhood; and the effort of Mr. Yallandigham, young
and inexperienced a% he then was, produced a deep and pro
found impression.

As a student of law he was diligent and attentive, devoting
much time also to general reading and literary culture) and
taking an active part in politics. On the 5th day of December,
1842, at Columbus, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme
and other courts of the State. On his return home he became
a partner of his eldest brother, who was then practising law in
New Lisbon. This brother in the course of a year left the
bar and entered the ministry, and he continued the practice

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 37

alone. The following notice of his first speech after admission
to the bar, we find in the Cincinnati Enquirer: —

"A friend of ours in the Enquirer office remembers hearing
Mr. Yallandigham deliver his first address at the bar. Judge
Belden, Mr. Upham, and other distinguished lawyers who were
present, characterised it as the most brilliant effort they had
ever listened to. It was in New Lisbon, Columbiana County,
and all the bystanders were struck with a promise of greatness
which the future so wonderfully realised."

Mr. Yallandigham entered upon the practice of his pro
fession with his accustomed energy and prosecuted it with
characteristic diligence, and so great was his success that in
four years his practice was equal to that of the oldest and
ablest member of the New Lisbon bar. Yet he gave a large
portion of his time to politics. He thoroughly studied the
science, and took a prominent and active part in every political
campaign. Indeed he greatly preferred politics to law ; and
had he been successful in his political aspirations, it is probable
that ultimately he would have abandoned the practice of law
altogether.

In August, 1843, he placed on record in his note-book the
following

"FIXED RULES

" Of political conduct to guide me as a statesman, in no instance
and under no circumstances to be relaxed or violated, and
this by the blessing of Almighty God.

" 1. Always to pursue what is honest, right and just, though
adverse to the apparent and present interests of the country,
well assured that what is not right can not in the long run be
expedient.

" 2. Always to prefer my country and the whole country
before any and all considerations of mere party.

38 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" 3. In all things coolly to ascertain and with stern inde
pendence to pursue the dictates of my judgment and my con
science, regardless of the consequences to party or self.

" 4. As far as consistent with the national honor and safety,
and with justice to the country, to seek peace with all nations,
and to pursue it, persuaded that a pacific policy is the true
wisdom of a State, and war its folly ; yet as resolved to demand
nothing but what is right, so to submit to nothing wrong.

" 5. Sedulously at all times and in every place to calm and
harmonise the conflicting interests and sectional jealousies of
the different divisions of the Eepublic, and especially of the
North and South; and with steady perseverance, under all
circumstances, to uphold and cement the union of the States as
the ' palladium of our political safety and prosperity/ except at
the sacrifice of the just constitutional liberties and inalienable
rights of oppressed minorities.

" 6. Without infringing the rights of conscience, always to
countenance and support religion, morality, and education, as
essential to the well-being of a free government; and in all
things to acknowledge the superintending providence of an
All- Wise, Most Just, and Beneficent God in the affairs of the
Eepublic."

With these fixed rules of political conduct he commenced
his active and eventful career. The tenacity with which he
adhered to them, and the consequences of this rigid adherence,
will be seen in the pages that follow.

CHAPTER Y.

IN THE LEGISLATURE OF OHIO.

IN the summer of 1845, Mr. Vallandigham was unani
mously nominated by the Democratic party of his native county
as one of their candidates for Representative in the State Legis
lature ; and in October of the same year, having just attained
the constitutional age, was elected without opposition. The
Legislature met on the first day of December, 1845, and he
took his seat, the youngest member of the body. Previous to
leaving home he laid down the following " Rules " for his con
duct as a legislator : —

"1. To avoid interfering in merely local matters, unless
they involve a grave general principle.

" 2. To avoid with persevering resolution all connection or
mingling with the petty factions or personal jealousies and quar
rels of political friends, and of foes also; if necessary to act in
any way in them, to do it as an ( armed neutral/ manifesting at
the same time that I act as a patriot, from a sense of duty, and
not from feeling as a partisan.

" 3. To speak but rarely, and never without having made
myself complete and thorough master of the subject; so that
when I rise, every one may expect to hear something worth
listening to. No error is more fatal to influence in a delibera
tive assembly than the violation of this plain rule : ' Verily, ye
are not heard for your much speaking/

" 4. Always to bear in mind the dignity and responsibility
of my station, remembering that, by the favor of my fellow-
oitizens, I am a part of the Government, and that human gov
ernment is the vicegerency of Heaven, and the highest exertion
of human power."

40 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Mr. Vallandigham's first effort was made on the 8th of
December, upon a motion to print the reports of the Benevolent
Institutions of the State. The following is an extract : —

" If there be any one thing more than another to which the
citizens of Ohio may point with proud and generous exultation,
it is to her public asylums, to her common schools, to her State
prison, by which she has acquired so lofty and honorable a pre
eminence among her sisters of the confederacy. Not the soil
of Ohio, not her climate, not the extent of her territory, nor the
multiplied variety of her productions ; not even the majestic
river which washes her base ; not the multitude of her teeming
population, nor her wealth, nor her resources, nor her rapid
growth, unparalleled in the history of States, challenging the
wonder of the world, and realising the magic creations of the
lamp in Oriental fable ; not any thing in her whole history, and
character has contributed one half so much to elicit the eulogy
and admiration of the intelligent and enlightened of Europe
and America, as the asylums and other public institutions which
the generous benevolence of the people of Ohio has consecrated
to the relief and solace of those whom, otherwise, the misfortune
of birth or the accidents of life must have consigned to hopeless
despair. For my own part, Sir, I never turn my eyes or direct
my thoughts toward these buildings — these living monuments
of a lofty and sublime charity — and to our common schools,
without the wTarm feelings of a heart — patriotic, I trust — swell
ing unconsciously in my bosom, and breaking from my lips,
though in solitude, in audible accents, 'I am a citizen of Ohio/
" Mr. Speaker, I do not mean, upon this or upon any occa
sion, to indulge on this floor in mere school-boy declamation.
I desire, now and always, to speak in language becoming the
representative in part of this great people. But be assured —
be assured — that these are the institutions which constitute the
true glory and greatness of a State. Be assured, that when
banks and tariffs, and all other fleeting topics of the day we
live in shall have descended to the oblivion which awaits them
alike; when your senate chambers, your halls of justice, and
your monuments shall have bowed themselves to the dust;
when you and I, Mr. Speaker, shall ' sleep in dull, cold mar
ble ;' nay, when, after the lapse of some centuries., this Union

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 41

shall have been dissolved, our political institutions decayed,
their vital spirit yielded up, our greatness all gone, and even
our language ceased to fall from living lips, be assured, Sir, that
the future historian of Ohio, writing her history in a tongue a£
yet unformed, will record as foremost and proudest among her
glories these very institutions which, with great humbleness,
yet in all singleness of heart, I have thus eulogised."

This subject was selected by him purposely, because it did
not involve party feeling, and the speech was extremely well
received by members of both parties. In the editorial corres
pondence of the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle it was thus noticed : —

'c The youngest Democratic member in the House, Mr. Val-
landigham, made his debut to-day, on a resolution to print
documents. It was a brilliant effort, and produced an electric
effect upon the House. He is a splendid young man."

On the first day of the session he had been appointed a
member of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, and on
the 9th submitted a carefully prepared report upon the question
of the eligibility of officers of the State Bank to a seat in the
Legislature, maintaining, in opposition to a majority of his
party, that they were not constitutionally disqualified. Soon
after, on the 18th, from the minority of the committee, he made
a very elaborate report upon the question of " Legislative Dis
tricts/7 in the Morgan County contested election. The report
attracted great attention in the House and throughout the State.
Hon. Samson Mason, a distinguished Whig, who, as chairman
of the committee, had submitted the report of the majority,
said, in debate, that " the report of the minority was an able
one, and highly creditable to the talents of the gentleman who
had made it." And Mr. C. C. Hazewell, then editor of the
Ohio Statesman, speaking of it, said, " Columbiana County may

42 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

well be proud of lie young member, who has already aehieved
for himself an enviable name as a debater for skill and fair
ness, and as a writer at once powerful and dignified. He is one,
also, who does not think it necessary to disgrace great talents
by buffoonery and immorality in order to achieve a sudden
notoriety."

On the 30th, Mr. Vallandigham spoke briefly in favor of
the bill to repeal the Ohio State Bank Act, referring in calm
and determined language to his confidence in the power of truth?
and his readiness to wait patiently and even long till she should
be vindicated. A single paragraph we quote, for the purpose
of illustrating the fact that even at that early period he was
characterised by the same open and bold avowal of his senti
ments, even though unpopular, that so greatly distinguished
him in after life : — " The gentleman from Shelby [Mr. Thomas],
and his friends with him, are fully welcome to the entire benefit
of anything which may have fallen from me. I have never
sought concealment, either upon this question or upon any
other. I am not afraid of the truth ; I dare speak it openly.
It may be unpopular, it may be in advance of the age ; it is
none the less truth, and I am not, therefore, the more afraid to
proclaim it."

He continued to take an active part in all important debates,
carefully observing the rules which he had laid down for him
self, and on the llth of February, 1846, in a speech which was
most flatteringly received, defended the sanctity of cemeteries
and other places of human sepulture. From that speech we
take the following beautiful extract :

" This bill, Sir, merits a different treatment at the hands of
honorable gentlemen. The feelings in .which it originates are

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 43

implanted in us by Nature herself, and it is vain for us to un
dertake to disregard them. They have been recognised,
honored and obeyed in all ages, because they spring up from
the human heart in its purest state. There is no man, how
ever humble his condition or whatever his religious belief, who
does not attach some sanctity to the dead, and desires that after
his life shall have terminated some tribute of respect be paid
to his remains. This is an aspiration, an impulse so natural,
that no degradation, be it ever so low, can obliterate it from
our hearts. Even the most friendless and forsaken, dying
alone, a stranger in a strange land, without a friend to perform
in his dying moments the last sad offices of affection, desires
that his body at least be suffered quietly and decently to rest
in its grave. And this is a feeling which has dominion much
more over the friends and relatives of the dead, where the dead
have been so fortunate as to have left relatives and friends
behind them. It is this self-same feeling which in all times
lias reared the splendid mausoleum of the king, and planted
the simple rose-bush over the humble grave of the peasant.
There is no nation, however barbarous, but has some funereal
monuments; and the rites and the sanctity of sepulture are
among all, 110 matter what their religion, held in the highest
regard. The Mussulmans have their cemeteries, spacious and
costly, and called beautifully and expressively in their language,
' Cities of Silence/ Even the simple Indian savages of our
continent have their memorials, rude indeed, but still memo
rials of the burying-places of their fathers. All this springs
from our innate feeling of veneration and care for the dead,
for those who have passed into that ' undiscovered country
from whose bourne no traveller returns ? — a feeling founded in
the consciousness we all possess of the immortality of the soul.
But whether the soul be immortal, or suffer annihilation at
death, there exists, and has existed in all times and among all
men, an instinctive desire that the body be cared for and
guarded, even though it be no longer any more than cold, un-
animated clay, resolved again to its original elements. And
even the place of one's burial has in every age been a matter
of anxious solicitude with the dying. Who that is familiar
with that earliest and best of books, coming down to us hallowed
by every sanction of antiquity, full of the simple narrative of
the patriarchal ages and fresh with the spirit of a newly-
created world, but remembers that the first purchase of land

44 LIFE OF CLEMENT X. VALLANDIGHAM.

upon record was of the cave of Machpelah for a burying-place,
where Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife ? Who has
not read the last dying aspiration of another of the Hebrew
patriarchs, who, calling his chosen son to his side, prayed him
with the simple pathos of expiring old age, ' Deal kindly and
truly with me ; bury me not in Egypt, I pray thee ; but I will
lie with my fathers; and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt.'
And who does not know how religiously the injunction was
obeyed ; and that four hundred years afterward the bones of
the son, also, were carried up from the land where first buried,
and Deposited in the sepulchre of the patriarchs. Sir, it is
vain to war against these feelings. Nature will assert her
mastery. They are too deeply implanted and too universal to
be despised in American legislation. Even in those countries
where the dead were burned, the ashes were preserved and
handed down in costly urns, as a sacred legacy to their children.
And superstition lent its aid to enforce the rites of burial, and
to secure the sanctity of the grave. The souls of those whose
bodies remained unburied were fabled in the mythology of the
ancients, to wander a hundred weary years to and fro upon the
banks of the river beyorid which lay the Elysian fields, before
it was permitted to them to pass over ; and the prayer of the
wandering spirit of the shipwrecked philosopher was that a
lew handfuls of dust might be cast — ' ter pulvere injecto ' —
even by the hand of a stranger, upon his uncovered remains.
The last degree of inhumanity, punished according to their
notions of future punishment with the hottest torments of the
damned, was for a victorious general to refuse to his vanquished
enemy the privilege of burying their dead. The very religion
of the ancients forbade the dissection of human corpses ; and
such dissection was first practised not many centuries ago.
Sir, these are feelings which must be respected, no matter, I
repeat, whether the soul be mortal or immortal. But if i mmortal
— and who so besotted as to doubt it? — how much more
ought the frail tenement in which it has been inclosed, and
upon which it may be that it now looks down in wistful soli
citude, be guarded with the most scrupulous veneration. \N"o
matter, either, whether death be an eternal sleep, as some vainly
and blasphemously hold, or no more than a temporary slumber
till

" ' Wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow,

• And Heaven's last thunder shakes the earth below.'

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 45

" But much more, even for the sake of the dead, ought
protection, and the protection of law, to be extended to their
bodies, if, as the Scriptures of truth teach, there is to come a
day when that great and tremendous Being who inhabits
eternity shall judge both the quick and the dead — when this
corruption shall put on incorruption, and this mortal immor
tality, and death be swallowed up in victory. He, then, who
holds to the faith of the Christian religion, ought the more
readily and sacredly to respect the sanctuary of the tomb. It
is hard enough surely, Mr. Speaker, to bear the lengthened
and wearisome ills of life without being denied even the cold
repose of an undisturbed grave. There is anguish enough in
passing down into the dark valley of the shadow of death
without the superadded torment of the anticipated violation
and dissection of our bodies. Shall the weary never be at
rest ? I appeal to honorable gentlemen ; I demand of you
ea$h one, what would be your own feelings under such an
anticipation ? But if you care not for yourself, what emotions
would stir your bosom under the knowledge that the body of
the cherished wife of your youth, or of the favorite child of
your old age, had been torn from the grave over which you
had just bowed in sorrow your stricken soul, watering it with
your tears, to be subjected to the merciless process of dissecting
by the knife of the faculty, though done with never so much
science ?

" I am aware, Mr. Speaker, that the feelings of which I
have just spoken do not touch the pocket. I know that they
do not smack of money, and can not be coined into gold.
They do not find exercise in the digging of a canal, nor in the
constructing of a railroad, nor in the establishing of a bank.
No ; they spring up and hang only as simple flowers over the
pure fountains of the human heart. I know, too, the tendency
of the age to grossness and sensualism ; to laugh at the mere
emotions of our nature, and to centre all the care and protec
tion of private association and public government upon property.
But these, Sir, I repeat yet again, are not feelings to be despised.
You protect against slander ; yet the sense of reputation is no
more than a mere emotion. Sir, the protection of property is
not the sole business of government ; nor is the protection of
life. The ' pursuit of happiness 9 also, in whatever form, is
equally an object of governmental care, so far as such care ought
to be extended to any object."

46 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

On ths 24th of the same month he made an elaborate
speech against the Tax Bill, in which he thus indignantly
repels the charge made against the Democratic party of
designing to repudiate the State debt : —

" The debt is upon us, and it must be paid, paid to the
uttermost farthing. The spectre must be exorcised, this
devil must be cast out. There is no alternative between pay
ment and repudiation. And who will hesitate? Democrats,
the Democrats of Ohio the advocates of repudiation ! Sir, I
hurl back the slander with indignation. We are a debt-paying,
a contract-abiding party. We will not stop to inquire by whom
or for what this great debt was accumulated. It is enough to
know that it is upon us. Though it were the most improvi
dent that ever hung upon a nation, yet shall it be paid — paid,
I repeat, to the uttermost farthing."

In the same speech he drew the character of the " True
Statesman," as he conceived it ; and as it was the ideal of that
at which he constantly aimed himself, we present it entire : —

". Politics is a science broader in its extent, as fixed yet
more liberal in its principles, more profound and more diversi
fied in its objects, as intricate in its nature, more penetrating
and controlling in its effects, wider far in its influence 011 the
happiness of mankind — which is the great end of life — and
nobler every way than all other human sciences put together.
It is a science the province of which is to carry out, through
the agency of man, the designs of the Deity himself. To
comprehend such a science in its fullest extent is the labor of
a life-time, and the business only of a STATESMAN. But by
this lofty title I do not mean, in its present degraded accepta
tion, a miserable partisan, without talents, without character,
full of the accumulated vices and deformities which make up
the mere vulgar demagogue, a compound of all vileness, the
embodiment of everything despicable ; whose very candor is
hypocrisy, whose reason is prejudice, whose party is his god ;
whose atom-intellect is exhausted in low intrigue, and his
whole research in long-buried falsehoods, to be refined and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 47

tortured and galvanised into fresh-born calumnies ; or worse,,
prying with the instinct of a still lower and baser meanness
into the sanctuary of private life and bed-chamber arrangement.
I mean no such detestable character; nor yet one who has
merely filled some legislative station with honor to himself and
benefit to his immediate constituents. No : I mean a STATES
MAN, in the broadest, highest, most comprehensive sense — ' a
mind to comprehend the universe ' — bold, sublime, original ;
from whose all-powerful grasp nothing can escape, to whose
piercing gaze nothirig is dark, nothing intricate, all clear and
plain and luminous as the sun in the firmament ; for whose
mighty compass immensity itself is scarce too great ; a mind
inductive, philosophical, inventive, able to originate the
mightiest and most extensive plans of national policy, not for
a day, but for ages ; capable of the loftiest designs, the boldest
conceptions, the noblest thoughts ; a mind that can take in
at a single glance the whole compass of State affairs, yet at the
same moment examine each, separately without confusion,
analysing, comparing, arranging, and harmonising all into one
concordant whole ; a mind sagacious, unerring, almost divine ;
a mind that can range at will over all cognate subjects, can
glance with the rapidity of thought through the dark vista
of the pasij thousands of years, and in a moment restraining
its flight, pierce with eagle gaze into the hidden recesses of the
future, ' casting the nativity of unborn time/ providing against
the storm before it has burst, treasuring up the accumulated
wisdom of ages, and applying it to the exigencies of the
present. A mind thus naturally gifted must have been de
veloped by years of laborious reading, observation, and study ;
must have penetrated deep into human nature ; must be filled
with the whole history of past and present States, adorned with
the treasures of science and literature, and enriched with
all the multifarious stores of legal and political knowledge.
Besides this, an American statesman must be profoundly versed
in the history, the interests, separate and relative, of the States ;
the institutions, political, literary, and religious, of his own
country ; and must have studied the constitution, laws, nature,
and powers of our peculiar system of government with the
deepest and most untiring research. And to these he must
add all those qualities which in public and private life can
ennoble or adorn the human character. His, too, must not

•

48 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

have been the mere casual experience of a few months or years
of legislation ; his whole life must have been devoted to it.

" Such, Mr. Speaker, is the character which I mean when I
speak of a Statesman. But I do not affirm that it has ever,
as I have drawn it, been exhibited in any age or country ; nor
yet that it is wholly attainable by any mere 'man that .is born
of woman/ Still less would I maintain that no one is fit for
political life or station unless he be just such a statesman.
Our condition, were such the case, .would be lamentable indeed.
But the greatest abilities are demanded only for the highest
stations and the greatest exigencies, which, comparatively, are
few."

Mr. Vallandigham's first vote, given a few hours after he
was sworn in, was in support of a resolution to open the
sittings of the House with prayer, a majority of his party
voting against it. Soon after, in reply to a member of his own
side who complained that he (Mr. V.) was quite too courteous
to the Whigs, he said, paraphrasing Burke, "that lie hoped
always so to be a Democrat as not to forget that he was a
gentleman." About the same time a Ayhig correspondent of
a newspaper, writing in reference to a violent speech by a
Democratic member, said, " He was suitably replied to by C.
L. Vallandigham, a young gentleman who is always as near
right as party trammels will permit him to go, and sometimes
a little more so." Thus his high moral character and urbane
manners, together with diligent and laborious attention to his
duties, secured to Mm the respect and good-will of all ; and
entering the House utterly unknown, and the youngest member
of it, his reputation was in three months established throughout
the State.

He returned home in March, 1846, and resumed the practice
of the law with redoubled diligence ; but in June was required
to canvass the county throughout, in order to secure a renomi-

LIFE OF 'CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 49

nation to the Legislature. At the preceding session Colum-
biana had been entitled to two members; this year to but one.
Mr. Vallandigham's former colleague appeared against him,
and a vehement contest followed — the nomination being equiv
alent to an election, and made by ballot. The cause of the
opposition to him was this : Some two years previously, the
Legislature had passed a so-called " Ketrenchment Act," reduc
ing all salaries to a contemptibly low standard ; Common Pleas
Judges being paid seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, and
members of the Legislature two dollars a day. Mr. Vallan-
digham had taken some money with him to the State capital ;
had lived " righteously and soberly," abstaining totally from
liquors and other similar indulgences, and yet had been obliged
to borrow money to enable him tc return home. He voted and
spoke earnestly for the repeal of the "Retrenchment Act."
Fully aware that his course would be unpopular with many of
his constituents, he said : — " Entertaining these opinions, and
believing that I am about to do right, I enter fearlessly upon
the discharge of my duty, satisfied to abide the judgment of a
constituency I am proud to represent. If that judgment be
against me, I shall be content ; having still within my bosom
the consoling consciousness that I dared to do what appeared
to me just." After an animated contest of several weeks, he
was renominated by a vote of two to one ; and at the following
October election, in spite of a very vigorous opposition by the
Whig party, Was re-elected by a large majority.

But although at this period of his life Mr. "Vallandigham

was full of business, diligently prosecuting the practice of

law and taking a very active part in politics, he found time to

devote to social and domestic matters. On the 27th of August,

4

50 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

1846, he was married to Miss Louisa A. McMahon, a sister of
the late Hon. John V. L. McMahon, of Baltimore, Maryland,
and daughter of Mr. William McMahon, one of the purest and
best of men, who lived and died a pious and honored citizen of
Cumberland in the same State.

The Legislature met on the 7th of December, 1846, and
Mr. Vallandigham was complimented by the unanimous vote
of his party for Speaker. The session was marked by the dis
cussion of three most important subjects, Mr. Vallandigham
taking a leading part as to all.

To the prosecution of the war with Mexico, then vehemently
opposed by the Whig party, he gave an earnest support. On
the 15th of December he offered a series of resolutions, of
which the following are two : — " That the war thus brought
about and commenced by the aggressions and act of Mexico
herself, having been recognised by Congress according to the
forms of the Constitution, is a Constitutional war, and a war of
the whole people of the United States, begun (on our part)
and carried on in pursuance of the Constitution and laws of
the Union. That this General Assembly has full confidence
in the wisdom and the ability of the Executive of the United
States to prosecute the war to a successful and speedy termina
tion by an honorable peace ; and that we hereby tender the
cordial sympathies and support of this Commonwealth to the
said Executive, in the further prosecution of the war." In
these resolutions it will be seen that he took care to establish
the grounds of his support,' declaring it " a war brought about
and commenced by the aggressions and acts of Mexico " ; " a
Constitutional war " ; " a war carried on in pursuance of the
Constitution and laws" ; and a war, the object of which was

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 51

not conquest and subjugation, but " a speedy, honorable peace."
These resolutions he supported in a strong speech ; and being
assailed personally in reply by a Whig member, he retorted
sharply in a second speech of considerable length, in the course
of which he answered the objection that the Legislature was
intermeddling in that which did not concern it ; saying that,
" as a friend to our peculiar system in its true spirit, and as a
State-Rights man, he would be sorry to see the day when the
individual States should cease to feel the deepest solicitude in
the acts of the Government of the Union."

The following is a brief extract from the speech : —

" But the gentleman from Harrison further charges me with
ambition.

"'The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Ccesar answered it'

Sir, I freely confess that I am not of so stoical a mould of
mind as to be indifferent altogether to the honors and glories
of the world. But mine, I trust, is that honorable ambition
which seeks the attainment of ' noble ends by noble means/
If I am not without ambition, I yet hope that I shall be found
' without, the illness which should attend it.' Oi^such ambi
tion I am not ashamed. But the gentleman misapprehends
me. I did not speak of the ' high places ' of the State and the
Union as the motives which control my speeches and move
ments in this House, or as iftting motives to govern any one.
Far from it. I have never made office, or even honor, the aim
or end of my ambition. They are desirable only so far as they
enable the true patriot the more efficiently to do good for his
country and for mankind, and not for their own sake. In this
spirit and conviction I begin public life, and in it I trust to
continue steadfast to the end."

At the same session the " Missouri Question " was revived
in the form of the " Wilmot Proviso," or proposed exclusion

52 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of Slavery from the Territories. In fourteen years the
agitation terminated in CIVIL, WAK. On the 16th of January,
resolutions in favor of the " Proviso " were introduced by a
Whig member from the Western Reserve. Mr. Vallandigham
promptly moved to lay them upon the table, which was done.
A few days later, being called up for discussion, he opposed
them in an impassioned speech (briefly and imperfectly reported),
declaring that the agitation could result only in civil war and
disunion, and that he had spoken with great earnestness and
feeling " because he felt called upon, as a patriot and citizen,
to resist and expose every measure which might work in
calculable mischief, not only to ourselves, but to generations yet
unborn." He further declared that whenever any question
might arise involving the Union in the alternative, he would
go with his might on that side — on the side of the Union,
now and forever, one and inseparable. During the session two
several petitions were presented by Whig members, praying
the Legislature because of the annexation of Texas to "de
clare the Union dissolved, and withdraw the Ohio Senators
and Representatives from Congress." Mr. Vallandigham
voted for the motion in each case to reject the petition.

But his ablest speech at this session was made in support
of his bill to provide for calling a convention to amend the
State Constitution. The bill received a majority but not a
two-thirds vote as required, and therefore failed : but the
speech attracted much attention throughout the State, and
ultimately led to the passage of the bill at a subsequent
session. To give a clear and satisfactory view of this speech
would require copious extracts, and for these we have not
space.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 53

Taking an active part upon all important questions, Mr.
Vallandigham again found it necessary to separate now and
then from his party friends. Upon one of these occasions —
on a bill to promote the cause of popular education, in which
he took a deep interest — he said "he was sorry to part
company with them on any question, but was not afraid to
vote according to the dictates of his conscience. He had
stood upon the floor before, and was ever proud to stand, even
in a minority, when he could feel, as he now did, that he
stood on the vantage-ground of truth."

Upon the question of the so-called " Black Laws," relating
to the disabilities of negroes and mulattoes, he voted against
their repeal, but supported a bill to submit the question to a
vote of the people, expressly declaring that he so voted because
the measure " would result in the most effectual putting down
of this vexed question for perhaps twenty years to come. It
would probably fall out as the question of negro suffrage in
New York, where the people had voted against it ,by a
majority of fifty thousand."

Throughout this his second session Mr. Vallandigham
maintained and added to the reputation which he had acquired
at the first. A gentleman, an eminent lawyer and politician,
writing to a Cincinnati neutral paper, said of him in March,
1847: "Although the youngest member of the Legislature, he
came to be regarded long before the close of his first session as
the leader of his party on the floor, which position he main
tained during the late short and active session Courtesy

and urbanity in public as well as in private life have secured
for him the esteem of all who know him without regard to
party, while his abilities have commanded their respect. In

54 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

all his intercourse with men there is evinced a frankness and
an obliging generous feeling which, above all other traits of
character, create and retain warm personal friends."

At the close of the session he returned home and resumed
the practice of law. His legislative course, so highly credit
able to himself, was universally approved by his constituents,
and they were anxious to nominate him again; but he declined,
and in a few months removed to another part of the State.

CHAPTER VI.

REMOVAL TO DAYTON, AND EDITORSHIP OF THE " EMPIRE."

IN August, 1847, Mr. Vallandigham removed to Dayton,
Montgomery County, Ohio. Some months before, he had visited
the place, was much pleased .with the people, admired the
beauty of the city, and the energy and enterprise everywhere
exhibited, and determined to make it his future residence. To
New Lisbon he was warmly attached : it was the place of his
nativity ; and its healthfulness, the beauty of the surrounding
scenery, the interesting associations connected with it of his
youth and early manhood — all these endeared it to him. But'
it was then a place of little enterprise, of little business, and
he desired a wider field. On his removal to Dayton he at
once entered into partnership in the practice of law with
Thomas J. S. Smith, Esq., an able and experienced lawyer,
and highly esteemed citizen. He also became connected with
the Western Empire, the Democratic paper of the city, as part
owner and editor. For this he had made arrangements before
his removal, anticipating that it might be some time before his
income from the practice of law would be sufficient for the
comfortable support of his family. This, however, was not
his only motive for connecting himself with the press. "When
a boy he took a deep interest in the art of printing, and in one
of the offices in his native town he was accustomed to spend

56 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

much time in setting type and making himself acquainted with
the mysteries of the art. He also had a high appreciation of
the power of the press, and loved to wield it ; and when two
years afterwards he disposed of his interest in the paper, and
surrendered the control of it into other hands, it was because
his increasing law business demanded the whole of his time
and attention.

The following are extracts from his " Salutatory Address "
on assuming editorial charge of the Empire September 2,
1847 :—

"We will contend calmly and resolutely for all salutary
reforms; yet not as seeking to change existing institutions
solely because they are old, nor clamoring for any innov-atiori
simply because it is new. i To innovate is not to reform/ Yet
no abuse shall escape us because -covered by the prescription of
ages, or protected by the canonising authority of great names.

" A radical Democrat as well from sober conviction as from
impulse, we will maintain with calm but determined firmness
the doctrines of radical progressive Democracy. Ours, how
ever, is not the sans culotte democracy of the faubourg, calling for
two hundred and seventy thousand heads ; but our own pecu
liar, rational, constitutional, American Democracy — that
Democracy which is built upon law and order, and governed
through reason and by justice — a Democracy the aim of which
is to approximate our forms and administration of government
as nearly to the standard of unmixed democracies as our cir
cumstances and the well-being of society will admit ; to leave
as much power with the people in their unorganised capacity as
is compatible with the necessities and efficient existence of
government, -delegating no more to their agents than is requisite
for its just and legitimate purposes. We will contend to the
utmost for the largest wholesome individual freedom of action
in all things, and oppose with our whole heart that pernicious
and anti-democratic intermeddling of Government with those
private affairs and relations between man and man which of
right and upon policy ought to be left to the individual citizen
himself.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 57

" We will maintain the right of the majority to govern ; not
as a natural right, inherent in majorities, but as a political
right, subject therefore as well to the restrictions imposed upon
it by our constitutions and laws (except in cases justifying a
resort to the ultima ratio populi, REVOLUTION) as to the natu
ral and imprescriptible rights of the men composing minorities
as individuals. We will war against despotism in all its forms ;
and to us the despotism of the many is no more tolerable than
the despotism of the few. We will maintain the will of the
people to be the supreme law, subject to the eternal principles of
right and justice, which it belongs not to the people to give or
take away ; but we will seek for that will primarily in the Con
stitution and laws. The will of the people as exhibited
through the press, through public assemblies, petitions, and
above all the ballot-box, is in itself neither Constitution nor
law; nor has it the force thereof, though entitled to great
respect. But it is the highest evidence of what constitutions
and laws the people desire to have ordained and enacted ; and
to the framers of constitutions, and to legislators as such, we
hold it to be, when fully and authentically ascertained, the
supreme law, as above limited.

"We will support the CONSTITUTION or THE UNITED
STATES in its whole integrity, as it came to us from 'the
fathers/ believing it to establish in principle the very best form
of government which the wisdom of man ever devised.

" We will protect and defend, according to our opportunities
and abilities, the UNION OF THESE STATES, as in very deed
the ' palladium of our political prosperity/ ' the only rock of
our safety/ less sacred only than Liberty herself; and we will
pander to the sectional prejudices, or the fanaticism, or wounded
pride, or disappointed ambition of no man, or set of men,
whereby that Union shall be put in jeopardy.

" We will maintain the doctrine of strict construction, as ap
plied to all grants of power, in trust, to the agents and servants
of the people, and especially to the Constitution of the United
States ; and we will stand fast to the doctrine, also, of ' STATE
RIGHTS ' as embodied in Mr. Madison's Virginia Report, and
Mr. Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions of '98.

" Free trade, the constitutional treasury, equitable taxation
assessed upon sound financial principles ; the collection of no
more revenue in the treasury of the general and State govern-

58 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ment than will suffice under a wholesome administration of the
finances ; the faithful and speedy discharge of the State debt,
never to be incurred again in time of peace ; a revision of our
State Constitution without further delay; wholesome and
rational economy in all the departments and all the transac
tions of government far removed from the ' economy of mean
ness/ confidence in the people, jealousy of their agents; one
term to the Presidency ; a fixed tenure to every office under the
Federal Government which will properly admit of it; war
before dishonor, but honorable peace always to be preferred to
war — these and other kindred principles and measures will
receive our hearty support.

" The cause of popular education shall receive in like man
ner our cordial sympathy and aid, as of the last necessity to
the prosperity and permanence of our institutions.

" To the present administration we will lend that support
(whatever it is worth) which an honest, independent man may
and ought to extend to the administration of the party to
which he belongs.

" On these, as on all subjects, our opinions shall be our own,
and they shall be candidly, boldly, but courteously expressed.
In our editorial intercourse with the public we shall seek no
personal controversy, nor shall any one draw us into any con
troversy unbecoming a gentleman. Towards all adversaries
between whom and us there shall arise any matter of difference,
we will exhibit proper respect — sometimes for their sakes,
always for our own."

This Salutatory Address exhibits his political creed more
fully than any other of his writings, and it is for this reason
that we make these copious extracts. The high appreciation
of the value of the Union which he here expresses he ever re
tained, though during the war an earnest effort was made by
his enemies to create the impression that he was in favor of its
dissolution.

Mr. Vallandighara proved himself an able and successful
editor. His selections displayed good taste and sound judg
ment, and his editorials were written with force and ability.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 59

The following, from the Empire of December 2, 1847, is
an extract from an editorial review of a sermon against the
Mexican War, by a Methodist preacher : —

" The Saviour whose Gospel he professes gave no such ex
ample, taught no such doctrine. When the Pharisees, ' tempt
ing him/ asked whether it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar,
a question which then divided the Jewish nation, instead of
pandering to their partisan feelings and prejudices by arraying
himself upon the one side or the other, he commanded them to
' render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar's, and to God
the things which were God's.7 It is no part of the duty of
the Christian minister, under the cloak of religion, and in the
Pharisaical cant of being otherwise recreant to duty, to pro
nounce his judgment in the pulpit upon the great political
questions which distract the generation in which he lives.
There is an end of all purity and usefulness in the ministry,
and with it of the usefulness and purity of religion also, if
such a course be tolerated. If the clergy and the church are to
be arrayed against the Democratic party on the question of this
war, let us know it, that we may set our battle in array accord
ingly In attacking thus boldly the abuses of re
ligion by those who essay to preach it, we make no attack on
religion itself. We desire to separate carefully and widely
between the two. We were taught from earliest infancy, and
have sought to practise the lesson ever since,' to reverence the
religion of the Bible, and to respect those at least of its min
isters who walk worthy of their vocation."

The introduction of politics into the pulpit, the inter
meddling of ministers of the Gospel with the exciting political
questions of the day, Mr. Vallandigham bitterly opposed and
unsparingly denounced all his life. He regarded it as injuri
ous alike to Church and State ; as especially damaging to the
cause of true and undefiled religion.

Another of his leading articles while editor of the Empire
was one affirming the right of revolution, but opposing what
was then called " DOKRISM," or the asserted right of a mere

60 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.'

numerical majority at any time to set aside existing rules and
forms as prescribed by constitutions ; and by spontaneous move
ment, without form or color of law, to set up a new constitution
and government : and another against the repeal, then agitated
by the Abolitionists, of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.

In June, 1849, he sold out his interest in the Empire. The
following are the closing sentences of his valedictory in resign
ing his position as editor. Referring to principles formerly
annunciated, he says : — " "We would stand or fall by them now
as then, and throughout life. Of the vital importance to the
welfare of the whole country in general, and the Democratic
party in particular, of two, in an especial manner, of these
principles, every hour has added to our deep conviction. And
we would write them as in the rock upon the hearts of our
friends forever: First, that which is really and most valuable
in our American liberties depends upon the preservation and
vigor of THE UNION OF THESE STATES ;. and therefore all
and every agitation in one section, necessarily generating
counter-agitation in the other, ought, from what quarter soever
it may come, by every patriot and well-wisher of his country,
to be c indignantly frowned upon ' and arrested ere it be too
late."

The summer and autumn of 1849 he spent in travel, and
the winter in general reading and study. During the winter
he was proposed and voted for, by his party in the Legislature,
for Judge of the Common Pleas Court of the Montgomery
circuit, but defeated by "the balance of power party" because
of his views upon the question of Slavery. In the spring of
1850 he resumed the regular and diligent practice of the law
with reputation and success,

CHAPTER VII.

EVENTS FROM 1850 TO 1855.

THE changes wrought by time in our history since the
year 1850 are so many and so radical, tjiat it is difficult for
men even of this generation, who were living at that time, to
clearly recall to their memories the condition of -affairs then,
and the public sentiment which existed at that period. In
those days the term Abolitionist was one of reproach; and
although a strong anti-slavery sentiment existed all over the
North, it was guided and controlled by a respect for the Con
stitution, kind feeling for the people of the South, and earnest
love for the Union as made by our fathers. " There were
giants, too, in those days " • great men, honest men, who had
no object in view in their political career but the honor and
glory of their country, and the perpetuity of the Federal
Union, just as it was made by the framers of the Constitution.

Every intelligent reader is so familiar with the history of
the Compromise of that year, that it is scarcely necessary to
give more than a hasty review of the circumstances attending
the passage of that important measure. The feelings of the
majority of the people of the North upon the subject of slavery
at that time are better and more concisely expressed by an
extract from a speech delivered by Mr. Holmes, of Massa
chusetts, many years before, than by any language we could

62 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

use. It is as follows : — " We are not the advocates or the
abettors of slavery. For one, Sir, I would rejoice if there was
not a slave on earth. Liberty is the object of my love, my
adoration; I would extend its blessings to every human being.
But though my feelings are strong for the abolition of slavery,
they are yet stronger for the Constitution of my country." Yet
a great and growing party was arising in the United States —
that which under the name of Republican triumphed in the
election of 1860 — governed more as to policy by hatred of
slavery and hostility to slaveholders than by love for the
Union or regard for the Constitution. This party, not as yet
distinctly recognised as a political organisation, had complete
control of some of the Northern States, and held the balance
of power in others. When the Compromise measures were
finally passed through the patriotic efforts of Clay, Calhoun,
and Webster, the anti-slavery men bitterly opposed them. The
principal objection was the Fugitive Slave Act, incorporated in
those measures. At the present time, when slavery is forever
abolished, and when the Abolitionists of the country have
triumphed, it would seem at first blush that the objections
urged against that law were reasonable; but a calm and
impartial examination of the question in the then condition of
the country, and with the Constitution as it then stood, will
satisfy the searcher after truth that the law was constitutional,
and nothing more than the South was in justice entitled to.

But the truth is that neither at that time, nor at any time
since, could human wisdom have devised a fugitive slave
law which would not have been either violently opposed or
altogether disregarded in the Northern States. During the
summer of 1849, the people of California, without any

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 63

authority of Congress, acting under a proclamation of General
Riley, then in command of that military district, framed a
constitution excluding slavery. When Congress met in Decem
ber, 1849, application was made for its admission as a State
under the constitution thus framed. A majority of the Repre
sentatives from the South were opposed to its admission under
this constitution, which they claimed was irregularly formed
and without authority of law. Many other irritating subjects
involving the Slavery question, also agitated the minds of the
people. A long contest for Speaker occurred, in which a con
siderable amount of sectional feeling was developed. After
the election of the Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Speaker,
the discussions in both the House and the Senate became very
bitter and exciting. The gravest apprehensions very soon
arose, that on account of the exasperated feelings aroused both
North and South, a dissolution of the Union would occur ;
and if the anti-slavery feeling had been but a little stronger,
and the North had possessed the numerical majority that she
had in 1860, it would have undoubtedly taken place at that
time, or the country precipitated into a civil war, notwithstand
ing the efforts of Clay, Webster, and others to bring about
reconciliation. Mr. Clay's Compromise proposed to admit
California under the constitution formed in the manner above
described ; to organize Territorial Governments for Utah and
New Mexico, without any restriction of slavery ; to settle the
question of boundary between New Mexico and Texas by
negotiation with that State; to pass an efficient Act for the
rendition of fugitive slaves, and to abolish slave-trade in the
District of Columbia. These measures were introduced in the
early part of 1850, at the first session of the Thirty-first

64 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Congress. After a long and severe struggle, the plan of Com
promise proposed by Mr. Clay was substantially adopted, and
the better class of people North and South were sanguine that
a permanent peace between the sections was established. But
in the North the Abolition agitators were determined that
there should be no settlement of the Slavery question other
than the complete destruction of the institution. Meetings
were held all over the North to denounce the Compromise
measures. A meeting of this kind was held at the City Hall
in Dayton, on the 19th of October, 1850. The following is
one of the resolutions reported to this meeting : — " Resolved,
That the Congress which could be so far frightened from its
propriety, by the insolent bluster and bravado of a few slave
holders, as to pass an Act (the Fugitive Slave Act) so fraught
with injustice, and so odious, deserves the rebuke of the people
of these United States." Mr. Vallandigham was present at
this meeting, and spoke earnestly in opposition to this resolution,
and in favor of the Compromise policy which gave birth to
the law. The Dayton Journal, a Whig paper, in an editorial,
spoke in these terms of his speech on that occasion : — " His
speech was ingenious and eloquent. His objection to the
course proposed by the resolutions was, that it would lead to
further agitation and tend to endanger the Union." This
resolution was, however, adopted by the meeting; and another
meeting was soon after called by the friends of the Compromise
measures, which was held on the 26th day of October. A full
account of this meeting, including Judge , Crane's letter, we
publish below. The letter of Judge Crane is a complete
answer, very concisely made, to the objections urged against
the Fugitive Slave Law. There were no party distinctions at

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 65

this meeting; the President was a prominent and influential
Whig, three of the Vice-Presidents were Democrats and three
were Whigs, and one Secretary was a Whig and the other a
Democrat : —

"PUBLIC MEETING IN DAYTON.

" Pursuant to a public call signed by over one hundred of the
citizens of Montgomery County, a very large meeting assembled
at the City Hall, in Dayton, on Saturday evening, October 26,
1850. On motion of K. Green, Alex. Grimes, Esq., was called
to the Chair. The meeting being called to order, on motion of
C. L. Vallandigham, Esq., Dr. John Steele, Dr. J. A. Walters,
Richard Green, David Cathcart, James McDaniel, and David
Clark were elected Vice-Presidents, and Jos. G. Crane and
David A. Houk, Secretaries. Mr. Vallandigham then read
the correspondence between a committee of gentlemen and Hon.
Jos. H. Crane, which was as follows : —

" ' DAYTON, Ohio, October 23, 1850.
" * To the Hon. JOSEPH H. CRANE :—

" <$iV:— The undersigned citizens of Montgomery County,
concurring in the call just issued for a meeting of all those who
are in favor of sustaining the recent efforts of the Executive
and Congress of the United States, to compromise and adjust
the vexed questions which for so long have agitated the country
and endangered the stability of the Union and the peace and
harmony of its different sections, and who desire that quiet,
good feeling of fraternal affection, as in the earlier years of the
Republic, shall once more and henceforward prevail between
us and our brethren of the South, respectfully unite in the
earnest request that, despite the many years which have crowned
you with so honorable an old age, you will consent to preside
at the meeting to be convened on the ensuing Saturday even
ing in the City Hall, for the purposes above expressed.
" * Very respectfully, &c.,

" * C. L. YALLANDIGHAM,
LUTHER GIDDINGS,
D. G. FITCH,
RICHARD GREEN,
T. J. S. SMITH,
GILBERT KENNEDY.
" ' To Hon. JOSEPH H. CRANE, Day toil.'

66 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"JUDGE CKANE'S REPLY. .

" ' DAYTON, October 25, 1850.

" ' Gentlemen : — Your letter of the 23d inst. was handed
to me yesterday. I should readily comply with your request,
if sanctioned by the meeting, if I were able to do so. But in
the present state of my health I am unable to attend, still less
to take part in a public meeting which may and probably will
be protracted to a late hour in the evening.

" ( I most cordially concur in the wish you express that
quiet, good feeling, fraternal affection, and, may I add, the old
good humor, as in the earlier years of the Republic, may once
more and henceforward prevail between us and our brethren of
the South.

" ' While no one will question the right of the citizens indi
vidually or collectively to express their views and opinions on
all questions affecting the public interest, it must be granted
that those opinions, when publicly announced, are equally the
subject of discussion and criticism.

" ' The resolutions adopted at a public meeting held in this
city last week censure the Act of Congress of last session, com
monly called the Fugitive Slave Act, as "unjust and oppres
sive, inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions and the
rights of men under them, and disgraceful to the Government."
Such are the general charges: the specifications are, that
Marshals, &c., are compelled under heavy penalties to obey and
execute process issued under this law, and subjected to liability
for the escape of such fugitives, whether with or without their
assent. This would seem rather an objection to the common
law than to this particular Act of Congress. Sheriffs and
other ministerial officers are compellable at common law to
obey and execute all lawful process to them directed, and sub
jected to heavy penalties for neglect or refusal. The same
common law makes the Sheriff, &c., liable for the escape of a
prisoner in rhis custady, whether voluntary or not. The
Marshal by this Act is only placed in the same predicament and
subject to the same responsibility as a Sheriff.

" ( I need only refer to the opinion of Mr. Crittenden, the
Attorney-General, to disprove the specification that this Act
renders ineffectual or suspends the writ of habeas corpus. This
writ is a writ of right, and every Judge, on a proper applica-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 67

tion to him, must issue it, and when the party is brought be
fore him must determine whether the imprisonment be legal or
not. This writ can only be suspended by Congress in the cases
specified in the Constitution.

" ' The complaint that this law makes the petty officers of a
court the Judges in questions of personal liberty and perpetual
slavery, without appeal or review, applies with equal force to
the Act of 1793, which was the law of the land for more than
half a century. That Act gave the same summary remedy,
authorised the arrest of the alleged fugitive by the claimant,
his agent or attorney, gave the Circuit and District Judges of the
United States Courts, or any magistrate of any county, city, or
town corporate where such arrest was made, jurisdiction to hear
and determine, without a jury and without appeal or review,
and the certificate of such Judge or magistrate was a sufficient
warrant to remove the fugitive to the State or Territory from
whence he fled.

" ' The principal difference in this respect between the Act
of 1793 and this Act amendatory and supplementary thereto, is
that commissioners appointed by the Circuit and District Courts
of the United States are substituted for the county, city and town
magistrates ; and though petty officers, or rather Judges of limited
jurisdiction, will probably be found quite as well qualified to hear
and determine as their predecessors under the Act of 1793.
Judge Story, in his commentaries on the Constitution, has shown
the reason and necessity of this summary remedy, adopted in
1793 and continued under the amendatory and supplemental
Act of 1850.

" ( It is further objected that this Act, under certain circum
stances, compels the removal of the fugitive to the State from
whence he fled, by the Marshal, and at the expense of the United
States. The Constitution secures to the owner the right of
reclaiming his slave in any State into which he has escaped.
The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that Con
gress has the sole and exclusive power of legislation on this sub
ject, and to carry into effect this provision of the Constitution,
the Act of 1793 as well as that of 1850 has established tribunals
to hear and determine cases of this description. But the
jurisdiction of a court would be maimed and defective without
the power of carrying its judgments into effectual execution.
This amendatory Act of 1850 has guarded against the forcible

68 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

rescue of one adjudged to be a fugitive and bound to service,
by requiring the Marshal to remove him to the State from
whence he fled, and empowering him to summon assistance to
overcome such apprehended force. The Sheriff may command
the power of his county where the process of the court is
forcibly resisted. This Act in the case specified gives the
Marshal a similar power to enforce the judgment of the court.
Have we not reason to believe that in many cases such judg
ments would prove wholly nugatory and unavailing without
some such provision for enforcing them ? But " it is on the
oath of the claimant and at the expense of the United States.77
He is the one most likely to be apprised of an intended rescue,
and to feel apprehensions of its success, and is the proper
person to make the affidavit. And why should this extra
ordinary expense fall on the claimant ? The Constitution has
secured his right of recapture ; he has established that right
before the tribunal created by law to hear and determine such
questions ; and ought not the Government to secure to him the
benefit of such judgment against unlawful force and violence ?
" ' I have gone through the specifications in support of the
general charges contained in the resolutions. However they
may affect others, they do not satisfy my mind that this amend
atory and supplemental Act deserves the character given to it by
those resolutions. I am, gentlemen,

" ' Very respectfully yours, &c.

" ' JOSEPH H. CRANE.

" 'To Messrs. GREEN, KENNEDY, GIDDINGS, VALLANDIGHAM, FITCH,
and SMITH.'

" On motion of Major L. Giddings, a committee of nine
were appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sense
of the meeting, whereupon the Chair appointed the following
gentlemen : — C. L. Vallandigham, E. W. Davies, D. G. Fitch,
I). Z. Pierce, Thos. J. S. Smith, Jonathan Harshman, Alex.
H. Munn, and Daniel Richmond.

" Major Giddings was then called for, and responded in a
brief address, sustaining the recent Fugitive Slave Law as an
important and indispensable feature of the Compromise.

" The committee being ready to report, through their Chair
man, C. L. Vallandigham, the resolutions were read, which
were as follows : —

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 69

" ' Whereas, in the opinion of the meeting here assembled,
a crisis of imminent peril exists in the affairs of the nation,
Avhich demands of every citizen that it be written upon his
forehead what he thinks of the Republic ; and Whereas, also,
Congress, at the session just adjourned, after many months of
wearisome and dangerous excitement and agitation, have pre
sented to the people of the United States a system of measures
designed to settle and put at rest forever the vexed questions
and embittered strifes which so far and for so long have
weakened the ties of common interests and a common brother
hood, and periled the existence even of the Union itself — we,
a portion of the people of Montgomery County, in public
meeting assembled, do declare and resolve :

" ' 1. That we are for the Union as it is and the Constitu
tion as it is, and that we will preserve, maintain, and defend
both at every hazard, observing with scrupulous and uncalcu-
lating fidelity every article, requirement, and compromise of
the Constitutional compact between these States, to the letter
and in its utmost spirit, and recognising no " higher law " be
tween which and the Constitution we know of any conflict.

" ' 2. That the Constitution was " the result of a spirit of
amity and of that mutual deference and concession which the
peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable ; "
that by amity, conciliation, and compromise, alone can it and
the Union which it established be preserved; and that it is
the duty of all good citizens to frown indignantly upon every
attempt, wheresoever or by whomsoever made, to array one
section of the Union against the other ; to foment jealousies
and heart-burnings between them by systematic and organized
misrepresentation, denunciation, and calumny, and thereby to
render alien in feeling and affection the inheritors of so noble
a common patrimony, purchased by our fathers at so great
expense of blood and treasure.

" ' 3. That as the friends of peace and concord — as lovers
of the Union, and foes, sworn upon the horns of the altar of
our common country, to all who seek and all that tends to its
dissolution — we have viewed with anxiety and alarm the perilous
crisis brought upon us by years of ceaseless and persevering
agitation of the Slavery question in its various forms; and
that the Executive and Congress of the United States have
deserved well of the Republic for theii patriotic efforts so to

70 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

compromise and adjust this vexed question as to leave no good
cause for clamor or offence by any portion of the Union.

" i 4. That a strict adherence in all its parts to the Com
promise thus deliberately and solemnly effected, is essential to
the restoration and maintenance of peace, harmony, and fra
ternal affection between the different sections of the Union, and
thereby to the preservation of the Union itself; and that GOOD
FAITH imperatively demands that adherence at the hands of
all good citizens whether of the North or of the South.

" ' 5. That, believing this Compromise the very best which,
in view of the circumstances and temper of the times, could
have been attained, we are for it as it is, and opposed to all
agitation looking to a repeal or essential modification of any
of its parts ; and that we will lend no aid or comfort to those
who for any purpose seek further to agitate and embroil the
country upon these questions.

"'Q. That "all obstructions to the execution of the laws,
all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible
character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract or
awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted au
thorities, are destructive of the fundamental principle of
our institutions and of fatal tendency " ; that all such efforts,
wherever made or by whomsoever advised, find no answering
sympathy in our breasts — nothing but loathing and contempt ;
and that we hereby pledge ourselves to the country, that so
far as in us lies, the UNION, the CONSTITUTION, and the LAWS,
must and shall be maintained.

" ' 7. That the resolutions adopted in this Hall on the 19th
of October do not meet our concurrence either in language,
temper, or object ; that in the opinion of this meeting they do
not express the sentiments of the people of this county, and will
not by them be endorsed; that we regard the Fugitive Slave
Act of 1850 as a Constitutional and necessary enactment —
an amplification and fulfilment of the Constitutional compact,
founded directly upon and demanded by it, and no more
stringent than that compact authorised and the exigencies of
the times required.'

" Geo. W. Houk, Esq., then moved the adoption of the
resolutions, whereupon Edward W. Davies, Esq., in a very
courteous manner, desired that if there were any in the meeting
who wereopposed to the sentiments expressed in the resolutions,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 71

that they would give a full and free expression of their opinions,
and assured them that the meeting would hear them with the
most respectful attention. He desired this, and extended the
invitation, hoping that if such sentiments were entertained, the
invitation might be responded to, inasmuch as he was open
to conviction and always wished to hear both sides of all
questions.

" There being no response to the invitation, T. J. S. Smith,
Esq., was called for and responded in a short speech, giving his
entire approbation to the object of the meeting and the resolu
tions.

" C. L. Vallandigham, Esq., was next called to the stand,
and responded, sustaining the law and the Constitution, and
reviewed at considerable length the objections to the law.

" The question was then put upon the adoption of the
resolutions and UNANIMOUSLY carried."

Mr. Vallandigham was warmly and enthusiastically in
favor of the Compromise Measures of 1850, including the
Fugitive Slave Law, not because he was a pro-slavery man
but because he believed that slavery was recognised and pro
tected by the Constitution. In this view he was sustained not
only by the ablest statesmen of the Northern States, but also by
the decisions of the most eminent Judges of the same section.
Judge Baldwin, a distinguished Judge from the North, a
Justice of the Supreme Court, said that the right of Southern
men to reclaim fugitives from labor (slaves) was the corner
stone of the Union, without which, he avowed in a judicial
decision, it would never have been established; and Judge
Story, that eminent jurist, said, in the case of Prigg vs. Penn
sylvania — speaking of the section of the Constitution under
which the law was made — " it cannot be doubted that it con
stituted a fundamental article, without the adoption of which
the Union could not have been formed."

72 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Mr. Vallandigham recognised in political matters no higher
law than the Constitution of his country.

During the years 1850 and 1851, his practice largely in
creased ; and although his health was not as firm as it became
at a later period of his life, he applied himself with intense
diligence and earnestness to his professional duties.

At the Democratic Convention in August, 1851, he was a
candidate for the office of Lieutenant-Governor, but after an
animated contest, and a very flattering vote, was defeated.
Edwin M. Stanton (afterwards the famous War Secre
tary), and Hon. Allen G. Thurman, were candidates before the
same convention for Supreme Judge, and were both defeated.
The Hon. George E. Pugh was nominated for Attorney-Gen
eral. Mr. Vallandigham did efficient service in stumping the
State in the campaign following, which resulted in a Demo
cratic majority of about twenty-seven thousand.

In August, 1852, notwithstanding strong opposition, he was
nominated as the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 3d
District, which was then composed of the counties of Mont
gomery, Butler, and Preble. The convention met at German-
town, in Montgomery County. The vote on the nomination
stood for Vallandigham 91, for P. P. Lowe 49, and for King
18. Mr. Vallandigham conducted the canvass with great in
dustry and energy, attending and addressing meetings in almost
every township in the District, but was unsuccessful. The
majority against him, however, was only 147 in a vote of about
twenty thousand. Some disaffected Democrats voted for Mr.
Campbell, his competitor, who also received the support of the
Abolition, or Liberty party. The Liberty party voted against
Mr. Vallandigham because of his earnest advocacy and sup-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 73

port of the Compromise Measures. They acknowledged his
ability and integrity, and their Central Committee, in a circular
published immediately after the election, thus refer to him : —
" In opposition to Mr. Campbell, the Democratic party had
nominated C. L. Vallandigham, a lawyer of high standing, an
eloquent and ready debater, of gentlemanly deportment and
unblemished private character, and untiring industry and
energy. But he was known to all to be an ultra pro-slavery
man (anti-abolitionist ) ; he undertook with a relish to carry
the load of the Compromise Measures, the Fugitive Slave
Law included, and he broke down under the burden."

During the summer of 1853, in company with his brother-
in-law, John V. L. McMahon, Esq., of Baltimore, he took a
long and delightful journey through the mountains of Virginia.
Starting from Cumberland, Maryland, they proceeded by easy
stages, often stopping for days in a neighborhood to gun
and fish, through Romney, Virginia, Moorefield, Franklin,
McDowell, and the Greenbrier Springs, to an obscure little hotel
in the mountains near the last-named place. Here they spent
several days in trout-fishing and exploring the mountain
heights around them. They returned northward in the same
leisurely manner, travelling much in the way described in the
interesting work of Col. Strother, Virginia Illustrated. In
after-days both of these eminent men were accustomed to descant
with the highest pleasure on the incidents connected with this
journey, and Mr. Vallandigham often referred to that period
as one of the happiest of his life. His health was much im
proved by this journey ; and the intimate converse with a man
of so remarkable ability as Mr. McMahon, and the reflections
awakened and meditations indulged in amidst the grand scenery

74 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

through which they passed, had no doubt an equally happy
effect upon his mind. It was singular that these men, who
had been so intimate and so warmly attached though differing
widely in many respects, should have died within a very few
hours of each other. United in life, — "tried friends, fond
brothers," — they were not long separated.

In 1854 Mr. Vallandigham was again nominated, this time
with but little opposition, for Representative in Congress.
Meantime, since 1852 great changes had occurred in the politics
of the country. The Whig party had perished : it did not long
survive the loss of its great leaders, Henry Clay and Daniel
"Webster, both of whom died in 1852. In opposition to the
Democracy was arrayed the wonderful strength, though it was
evanescent, of the Mystic Brotherhood, the American or Know-
nothing party. A storm of indignation too had been aroused
in the North by the passage of the Nebraska Bill, and by what
was denounced as the violation of the Missouri Compromise.
The Hon. Lewis D. Campbell was again nominated against
him. The campaign was active and animated. Mr. Yallan-
digham denounced the Know-nothing order in the severest
terms everywhere in the district, yet towards the close of the
canvass the excitement was raised to fever heat by the report,
widely circulated and most emphatically affirmed, that he was
himself a member of the order. In Butler County this excite
ment was greatly augmented by many bets being offered by
Mr. Vallandigham's friends and taken by his opponents, that
the allegation made against him was untrue. Several affrays
growing out of this charge took place in different parts of
the district. Two of the most prominent and respectable
gentlemen of the city of Hamilton became so enraged in a dis-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 75

cussion upon the subject, that from words they came to blows,
and quite a desperate rencounter occurred, in which the Demo
crat, a prominent politician and then sheriff of the county, was
the victor, and thus acquired the title, which he bore for many
years, of the " fighting sheriff." It is proper to say that he
was not the aggressor. On Monday before the election Mr.
Yallandigham went down to Hamilton, and before Judge Jo-
siah Scott, afterwards of the Supreme Court of Ohio, made
solemn oath that he was not and never had been a member
of the organization. The manner in which the report gained
such strength and credence, was this : Some days before the
election one of Mr. Yallandigham's political opponents, presi
dent of a Know-nothing lodge, came up from Hamilton to
Dayton, and induced the president of a Know-nothing lodge
in the latter city to sign a statement that Mr. Yallandigham
was a member of his lodge. This was taken back to Hamilton,
and was considered so authoritative that many were induced
to stake money upon its truth. But the person who made the
statement afterwards swore solemnly that it was untrue, and
that so far as he knew, Mr. Vallandigham never belonged to
the Know-nothing order. In fact, Mr. Yallandigham early
learned from a personal friend who did belong to the order,
all about it, its ritual, its signs, grips, &c., and immediately
expressed his opposition to it and took the first public oppor
tunity to denounce it.

The year 1854 was one of disaster to the Democracy; the
party was everywhere defeated, and Mr. Yallandigham fared
no better than his brethren elsewhere. The majority against
him was 2565, although he ran between four and five hundred
ahead of the State ticket in the district. He took his defeat in

76 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM,

the most philosophical manner possible, and again concentrated
his energies upon the practice of law.

During the campaign of 1854 his son Charles was born, and
Mr. Vallandigham's letters about this time to his relatives and
most intimate friends were more devoted to accounts of domestic
affairs than the discussion of politics. Mr. Vallandigham has
often been denounced as a cold-hearted, ill-tempered man by
those who cannot understand that the hand which is strongest
in the contest with men may be the tenderest and most gentle
in the family circle. Children always by instinct seemed to
love him ; and it was his delight, when relieved for a time of
the cares of the world, to watch their innocent gambols and
take part in their amusements. His was a stormy and busy
life, however, and but little time was granted him in which to
unbend his brows and give way freely to the natural feelings
of a warm and affectionate heart.

The winter and spring passed pleasantly over his head ; all
of his time which he could spare from his office being spent
in his own household, in the society of his family and friends,
and in general reading. It was about this time that he came
to the conclusion that it was scarcely possible for the country
to escape a great civil war. Resolved to do what he could to
avert it, he determined to make a speech of warning to the
Democracy on this subject. This speech he delivered before a
Democratic meeting in Dayton on the 29th of October, 1855,
and it was one of the ablest and most eloquent speeches of his
life. It was a searching and exhaustive review and exposition
of the rise, progress, and full development of the Abolition
movement in the United States ; and its purpose was to bring
the Democratic party up to meet the slavery issue fairly and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 77

boldly, and thus to restore it to sound doctrine and discipline,
and therefore to power and usefulness. Firmly believing that
the continued agitation of the Slavery question would result in
civil war, and perhaps in a dissolution of the Union, he pointed
out with earnestness the duties of the hour and the danger
impending the country.

This speech excited much interest and attention : by request
of those wno heard it, it was printed in pamphlet form, and
widely circulated. It was highly lauded even by some of his
political opponents. The Dayton Empire thus speaks of it : —

" Mr. Vallandigham opened the meeting in a powerful
speech. His argument upon the Slavery question was one of
the most connected, logical, forcible and brilliant arguments
that we have ever listened to. He reviewed the whole subject,
he went over the whole field, and there was no candid man
present who did not feel that he had triumphantly vindicated
Democratic principles and Democratic policy. He was fre
quently interrupted by loud bursts of applause. . . . Mr.
Vallandigham's effort was the best of his life. We have heard
many say that it was the very best political speech that they
ever heard ; and if we may judge from the applause with which
he was greeted, this opinion was not confined to a few."

The following is from the Dayton Journal, a Whig
paper : —

" Having some curiosity to learn the precise object of the
meeting advertised by the Democracy for Monday evening, we
took a seat in the City Hall, and listened to the speech of Mr.
Vallandigham from beginning to the end. It would be unfair
to deny to the effort of Mr. V. signal ability, ingenuity, and
eloquence, or to refuse to admit that, considering his strong
Democratic proclivities, there was more of fairness in his man
ner of treating questions of a purely partisan character than
we had been led to expect. His detail of the rise, progress,
and combinations of i third parties/ or ' isms/ was interesting
and instructive. His statement of the introduction of slavery

78 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

into this country, and the agencies by which it was accom
plished and the traffic in slaves upheld, though not unfamiliar
to many persons, might be considered with profit by a great
many more. But with all this there was a disposition to glo
rify and uphold the Democratic party which we confess was
altogether unpalatable to the old-fashioned "Whiggism with
which we have been indoctrinated ; though it is to be stated by
way of offset, that Mr. Vallandigham was at times not a little
severe upon the inconsistency and subserviency of this same
Democratic party.

" The principal demonstration of Mr. Vallandigham was
against fanaticism and sectionalism, and here much that he
said was just to the point. He argued in favor of confining
questions of morals and politics to their legitimate and appro
priate spheres, and against all stirring up of strife between the
North and the South. He traced opposition to the enforce
ment of the Fugitive Slave Law to hostility to the Constitu
tion itself, and a pretended responsibility in the North for
the ' sinfulness ' of slavery as the fruitful source of the feeling
of alienation which had been engendered between the North
and the South. He contended that with the alleged sinfulness
of slavery the North had nothing to do. It was enough for
the people of the North to know that the ' peculiar institution
was sustained by the Constitution/ His object was not to dis
cuss the evils or the sinfulness of slavery, or to express any
opinion in regard to its evils or its merits. He was anxious to
meet and repel every attempt to make the existence of slavery
in the South, or elsewhere, a pretext for the formation of sec
tional parties which must endanger the perpetuity of the
Union."

The following are some of the closing sentences of the
speech : —

" All this, gentlemen, the spirit of Abolition has accomplished
in twenty years of continued and exhausting labors of every
sort. But in all that time not one convert has it made in the
South, not one slave emancipated, except in larceny and in
fraud of the solemn compacts of the Constitution. Meantime
public opinion has wholly, radically changed in the South.
The South has ceased to denounce, ceased to condemn slavery,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 79

ceased even to palliate, and begun now almost as one man to
defend it as a great moral, social and political blessing. The
bitter and prescriptive warfare of twenty years has brought forth
its natural and legitimate fruit in the South. Exasperation,
hate and revenge are every day ripened into fullest maturity
and strength, and now needs but the acts of the North to unite
in solemn league and covenant to resist aggression even unto
blood.

" I know well, indeed, Mr. President, that in the evil day
that has befallen us, all this and he who utters it shall be
denounced as ' pro-slavery ;' and already from ribald throats
there comes up the slavering, drivelling, idiot epithet of ' dough
face/ Again, be it so. These, Abolitionists, are your only
weapons of warfare, and I hurl them back defiantly into your
teeth. I speak thus boldly because I speak in and to and for
the North. It is time that the truth should be known and
heard in this age of trimming and subterfuge. I speak this
day not as a Northern man, nor a Southern man, but, God be
thanked, still as a United States man, with United States prin
ciples ; and though the worst happen which can happen, though
all be lost, if that shall be our fate, and I walk through the
valley of the shadow of political death, I will live by them and
die by them. If to love my country, to cherish the Union, to
revere the Constitution ; if to abhor the madness and hate the
treason which would lift up a sacrilegious hand against either ;
if to read that in the past, to behold it in the present, to foresee
it in the future of this land, which is of more value to us and
the world for ages to come than all the multiplied millions who
have inhabited Africa from the creation to this day — if this is
to be pro-slavery, then in every nerve, fibre, vein, bone, tendon,
joint and ligament, from the topmost hair of the head to the
last extremity of the foot, I am all over and altogether a pro-
slavery man.

" The true and only question now before you is whether
you will have union, with all its numberless blessings in the
past, present and future, or disunion and civil war, with all
the multiplied crimes, miseries and atrocities which human
imagination never conceived and human pen never can
portray.

" I speak it boldly, I avow it publicly : it is time to speak
thus, for political cowardice is the bane of this as of all other

80 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

republics. To be true to our great mission and to succeed in
it, you must take open, manly, one-sided ground upon the
Abolition question. In no other way can you now conquer.
Let us have, then, no hollow, compromise ; no idle and mistimed
homilies upon the sin and evil of slavery in a crisis like this ;
no double-tongued, Janus-faced, Delphic responses at your State
conventions. No ! fling your banner to the breeze and boldly
meet the issue : Patriotism above mock philanthropy ; the
Constitution before any miscalled higher law of morals or
religion ; and the Union of more value than many negroes.

" If thus, Sir, we are true to the country, true to the Union
and the Constitution, true to our principles, true to our cause
and to the grand mission which lies before us, we shall turn
back yet the fiery torrent which is bearing us headlong down
the abyss of disunion and infamy deeper than plummet ever
sounded. But if in this day of our trial we are found false to
all of these — false to our ancestors, false to ourselves, false to
those who shall come after us ; traitors to our country and to
the hopes of free government throughout the globe — Bancroft
will yet write the last sad chapter in the history of the American
Republic."

To those who have grown up since the new era of emanci
pation — to whom the triumph of Abolitionism, even at the
cost of a bloody civil war, appears to be a glorious progressive
movement — it may seem that the vigorous defence of the rights
of the South, and the violent opposition to Abolitionism of
Mr. Yallandigham and other Northern men, was uncalled for
and improper. Before, however, they denounce these men or
harshly condemn their course, let them carefully examine the
past history of the country. In such investigation they will
learn some facts that may modify their views and soften the
asperity of their feelings, and teach them wholesome lessons of
charity. They will learn that the stern old Puritans, from
whom they are proud to claim their descent, were many of
them slaveholders, holding not only negroes, but also Indians

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 81

in bondage; that the institution of slavery existed in nearly
all the States of the Union at the time of the adoption of the
Constitution; that it was recognised and protected by that
Constitution ; that probably a majority of the framers of that
instrument were slaveholders ; that the Declaration of Inde
pendence was drawn up by a slaveholder ; that a large propor
tion of the great men in the earlier days of the Republic who
have adorned the pages of our history, were slaveholders ; and
if we were to strike from our annals the names of those illus
trious men, but a barren list would be left of our heroes and
statesmen. We should have no Jefferson or Madison, no
Chief-Justice Marshall or William Wirt, no Clay, or Calhoun,
or Jackson; and above all, no Washington. They should
call to mind the fact that the emancipation of the slaves
in the Northern States was not a sudden thing, nor entirely
brought about by feelings of humanity ; that it was gradual,
and that a large number of slaves in the North were sold to
the South by their owners before emancipation laws had been
enacted, or at least before they had gone into operation. Nor
should it be forgotten that the emancipation of the slaves in
the South was not the result of any great moral feeling or
humanitarian impulse on the part of its authors. It was a
war measure, just as their enfranchisement was accomplished,
because those who effected it regarded it as a political necessity,
in order to preserve the power of the Eepublican party and to
control the politics of the country.

Although Mr. Valkindigham was always opposed to Aboli
tionism, it was simply because the Slavery agitation disturbed
the peace and harmony of the country, assailed the principle
of State Rights, and threatened a dissolution of the Union.
6

82 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

He was no advocate of the perpetuity of the institution. He
believed that ultimately, without any shock to our political
system, it would be abolished — gradually, and by the action
of the Slave States themselves: this he considered the only
wise and safe plan, and for this he was willing to wait.

CHAPTER VIII.

ELECTION TO CONGKESS IN 1856, AND CONTEST FOR THE

SEAT.

ON the 28th day of July, 1856, the Democratic Convention
to nominate a candidate for Congress from the 3d District of
Ohio, met at Eaton, in Preble County. After duly organising,
the names of Mr. Isaac Robinson, Hon. William King, and
Judge Kinder, that had been presented, were withdrawn, and
on motion of Col. Hendrickson, Mr. Vallandigham was nom
inated by acclamation.

It was the year of the first struggle for the Presidency by
the Republican or Abolition party, now consolidated by the
total dissolution of the Whig party. The Presidential canvass
was extremely violent ; but in the Third District it was wholly
forgotten in the terrible bitterness of the Congressional contest.
Nothing equal to it had ever occurred in the United States.
The Abolition party had renominated Mr. Campbell, who had
twice before been Mr. Vallandigham's successful competitor.
For three months, day and night, every energy of the candi
dates and their respective parties was exhausted ; and at the
end of the canvass, Mr. Campbell appeared by the official
count to be elected by nineteen majority. Gross and palpable
frauds had been committed by the successful party ; and upon
this ground, and because a number of negro votes had been

84 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

cast for his competitor, the friends of Mr. Vallandigham de
manded that he should contest the election. He consented,
and on the 25th of October served on Mr. Campbell a notice
of contest. A technical objection having been suggested to the
sufficiency of this notice, he avoided it by serving the notice
again on the 29th of December, 1856. On the 27th of Jan
uary, 1857, he received a formal reply to the notice, assigning
the reasons why the contestee would insist upon his right to the
seat. The contestant commenced taking depositions in support
of his claims, in Butler County, on the 2d of February, 1857,
represented by his attorney, F. Vanderveer, Esq. (afterwards
Colonel and then General in the Federal army), the contestee
being represented by N. C. McFarland, Esq. From the 20th
to the 28th of March testimony on his behalf was taken in
Montgomery County, J. A. McMahon, Esq., acting as attorney
for the contestor, and F. P. Cuppy, Esq., for the contestee. On
account of the expiration of the sixty days limited by law from
the time of giving notice, the contestant was unable to take
any testimony in Preble, the other county of the District.
The contestee did not commence taking testimony on his be
half until within eleven days of the expiration of the period
limited by law ; and about that time wrote to Mr. Vallandig
ham, proposing to waive all technicalities, and each to proceed
to take further testimony in the case. Mr. Vallandigham re
fused to accede to this proposition, but wrote to Mr. Campbell,
saying that he was willing to waive all advantages as well sub
stantial as technical, and at such time as the Governor of the
State might appoint, or if the contestee should prefer it, on the
second Tuesday of October following, to submit again the
question to the people of the District for their final decision.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 85

To this proposition Mr. Campbell made no reply, and so the
matter rested till the first of December.

In June, 1857, occurred the Ohio rebellion. The deputies
of the United States Marshal of the Southern District of Ohio,
in the execution of a regular judicial process, issued under the
Fugitive Slave Act, took in custody several slaves. They were
pursued by a body of armed men, more than fifty in number,
from Champaign County, through Clark into Green County,
and there attacked and overpowered and the negroes rescued.
The assailants of the Deputy Marshals were acting by virtue
of a writ tfhabeas corpus, under a recent law of Ohio which had
been passed for the very purpose of obstructing the execution of
the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act in that State. This
writ had been issued by the Probate Judge of Champaign
county, and was directed to the sheriff of that county, directing
him to take the rjrisoners from the Marshals. The Marshals,
acting under the authority of the United States laws, believing
that authority to be paramount, resisted the sheriff, and were
therefore arrested 011 State process before a Justice, and com
mitted to jail. To discharge them from imprisonment a habeas
corpus was issued from the United States Court at Cincinnati.
In the feverish state of the public mind upon slavery, this of
course excited much attention in all parts of the State, and
created much feeling. The Abolitionists deeply resented the
action of the United States authorities ; and although the statute
under which the Government officers had been obstructed in the
performance of their duties was clearly a nullification of one of
the most important laws of the United States, one made under
a special section of the Constitution, a part of the Compromise
measures of 1850, and one already declared constitutional, they

86 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

determined to assert State authority and punish the United
States officers if possible. Governor Chase, who proclaimed
the extreme doctrine of State Rights, considered the sovereignty
of Ohio attacked. He manifested great interest in the case, and
sent the Attorney-General to argue the case for the State. The
Governor was supported in his views by a majority of his party.
They controlled the State, and exhibited a spirit of defiance to
the Government which was calculated to produce alarm.
Threats of resistance to the United States authority were openly
made. This affair was known as the "Ohio Rebellion.7'
Under circumstances, therefore, of unusual excitement, Mr,
Vallandigham, with the Hon. George E. Pugh and Stanley
Matthews, Esq., appeared for the United States. The case was
tried before Judge Leavitt, the man who afterwards gained
disreputable notoriety by his decision in the habeas corpus of
Mr. Vallandigham. It was argued with great ability by the
attorneys on both sides; and in the course of his speech the
Attorney-General took occasion in very plain language to make
the issue between the State of Ohio and the General Govern
ment, and advocated with much ability and earnestness the
extreme doctrines of the State Rights party. Mr. Vallandig-
ham's argument, from which we append some extracts, called
forth the highest commendation. Maintaining the vital doc
trine of State Rights to the fullest extent, he yet asserted and
upheld the absolute supremacy of the Federal Government
within its constitutional limits. Mr. Vallandigham commenced
by referring to the question of excess and abuse of authority by
the Marshals in resisting the efforts to rescue the negroes, and
averred that it was distinctly established that no more was done
by the Marshals than was necessary, or certainly at the moment

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 87

and under the circumstances appeared necessary, to prevent the
rescue of their prisoners, and to defend themselves against
violence, if not loss of life. He then cited many authorities to
sustain a proposition questioned by the Attorney-General, that
in habeas corpus cases, courts exercising common law jurisdic
tion could go behind the return when the party was held under
judicial process, and inquire by affidavit or otherwise into the
true facts of the capture and detention of the party in custody.
This was an important point, for the Sheriff's return upon its
face appeared to show good and sufficient cause for the seizure,
detention and commitment of the prisoners. He spoke at great
length and with much earnestness of the extraordinary statute
nullifying the United States law, under color of which the Mar
shals had been obstructed in the performance of their duties,
and ultimately cast into prison. He said the writ by which
the United States officers had been arrested in the discharge of
their proper functions was —

" . . . . not a writ of habeas corpus ; not the high pre
rogative writ of old England, not the great writ secured by the
Constitution, having none of its sanctity, and entitled to no
part of its charities. It was not directed to the party who de
tained the prisoners (the negroes) in custody. This is of the
very essence of a habeas cor 'pus ; it is descriptive of it, and
enters into a definition of the writ. But it is called a writ of
habeas corpus because that is a holy name and embalmed in
the hearts of the people. It had a wicked and treasonable
purpose to subserve, and it must assume a sacred name and
garb. Its author well understood the philosophy of Mirabeau,
and after him Byron. He knew that —

Words are things ; and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew upon a thought, produces

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

But the motives and the results expected from it cannot be
thus concealed, and in a court of law it must be stripped of

88 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. V ALL AN DIGRAM.

its disguises, and set forth in its true character — a statute of

sedition and-discord He agreed heartily and throughout

with the State Eights doctrines which the Attorney-General
with so much ability had advocated. He (Mr. V.) yielded to
no man in devotion to those doctrines. Perhaps he even
carried them farther than many others. But this was not a
question of State Eights. We lived under two governments,
which were only parts of one great whole. Neither govern
ment possessed all the attributes of sovereignty. Every citizen
of Ohio, and especially by a peculiarity of our State Constitu
tion, is a citizen of the United States. As citizens of Ohio we
do not exercise the right to declare war and make peace, to
maintain an army and navy, &c. In the quality of citizens of
the United States we do exercise these powers, though as such
citizens we are wanting in others which belong to us in our
character as citizens of the State. Sovereignty is, therefore,
divided among the governments of the States and the Union.
The boundaries are defined and marked out in the Constitution
of the United States. Each is supreme within its own limits.
Neither can be interfered with by the other while each keeps
within its own proper orbit. The Constitution of the United
States, and all laws in pursuance of it, are indeed the supreme
law of the land ; and where constitutional, in case of conflict,
bind the Judges of the State Courts. All State officers are
sworn to support it. Thus the Constitution of the Union is a
part of the Constitution of Ohio ; the laws in pursuance of it
are a part of the legislation of the State, and the decisions of
its courts within their sphere a part of the jurisprudence of
the State ; and all are to be construed together. So long as
each government keeps within its constitutional and legitimate
sphere, such is the admirable beauty and the perfection of the
system that there never can be a collision. Wherever, then,
the courts or authorities of the United States have constitu
tional power to act, their process and action ought to be wholly
free from all control, temporary or permanent, in any way or to
any extent, by State action or State process. It is of no
moment what the purpose is, or how long the intermeddling,
whether for an hour, a day, or six months. And, in this point
of view, a writ of habeas corpus is no more sacred, and has
no more power or authority to control, or delay, or affect in any
way, or for any purpose, or any time, the process of the
United States, than a capias, an execution, or an attachment.

LIFE OF CLEMENT £. VALLANDIGHAM. 89

" Mr. V. would now apply these principles to the argument
of. the Attorney-General this morning. Assuming the very
point in controversy, Mr. Attorney had selected his ground
and built up a most able and ingenious, and, he would say, un
answerable argument. Mr. V. would give him the whole
benefit of it in its utmost strength. He finds the collision
which confessedly exists in this case between the State and the
United States, in an attempt by this proceeding on habeas
corpus, under the Act of Congress in 1833, to obstruct and
render useless and powerless the penal laws and jurisprudence
of the State, and to protect hereby the Marshals of the United
States from punishment for an infraction of those laws — the
laws against assault and battery and the attempt to murder.
He has argued, and most conclusively — and it was his whole
argument — that the Government of the United States cannot
interfere with the penal laws or process of a State, and rescue
offenders from the penalty for offences against those laws.
But did not Mr. Attorney see, Mr. V. would ask, that the very
question to be argued was, whether the acts done by the
Marshals were, under the circumstances, an offence against the
laws of the State? If they were, then this Court had no
power, by habeas corpus or otherwise, to shield them from
punishment. But let that question be tested. Prima facie,
every homicide is murder (Wright's Rep. 75); the statute
against murder is general ; it contains no excepted cases. How,
then, does the sheriff, who hangs a man by the neck till dead,
escape ? Because the same statute-book commands that he shall
do it ; and the different statutes and sections being construed
together, it appears to be lawful. Again, the statute against
homicide is general. How, therefore, is the Warden of the
Penitentiary justified who takes the life of a prisoner while
attempting to escape ? Because the law sanctions it. Or how
comes the State officer to stand acquit who in executing process
is obliged from necessity to kill the party resisting ? Because
the law allows it. It is, therefore, not every beating that is
an assault and battery, nor every killing that is murder, nor
every shooting with intent to kill that is an offence against the
penal laws of the State. Now, the Constitution of the United
States is a part of the Constitution of Ohio ; the law of 1850,
under which the process issued to the Marshals in this case, is
a part of the laws of Ohio, and must be taken and construed
together with the statutes against assault and shooting with

90 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

intent to kill. The Constitution authorised the law, and the
law the process, and the process justified the officer in using all
the force necessary to execute it. If he used this force and no
more, then what he did, though there were beating and shoot
ing, was no offence against the penal laws of Ohio. And all
that the Court proposes to do here is to inquire into the truth

of these matters."

i

After briefly summing up the points made in the case, Mr.
Vallandigham then concluded as follows : —

" I have now, may it please your Honor, finished what I
have to say upon the law and the facts of the case. Its mag
nitude, the deep public interest which it everywhere excites,
and the momentous results which, with the certainty of the
grave, must follow from a failure by the Judiciary or the Exe
cutive of the Union to assert and maintain the principles and
the rights which are involved in it, are my apology for having
so long detained the Court in this argument. I concur with
the Attorney-General in all that he has said of the vast im
portance of the case now and hereafter; and the more especially
if the menaces which he, the law-officer of the State and her
representative in this forum, has seen fit to more than insinuate
in case of an adverse decision by this tribunal, are, in the hour
of madness, to be carried out by her authorities as they are
now constituted. Never before has any part of the Judiciary
of the United States been called upon in the same way and to
the same extent to affirm and to vindicate these rights and
principles, so essential to the peace and harmony and the ex
istence of the beautiful complex system of government under
which for so many years we have flourished and grown great
and happy as a people. In another forum and in other forms
they have, indeed, been repeatedly and vehemently agitated and
discussed. Similar cases . have also now and then arisen re
cently in your courts, wherein these same doctrines have been
brought incidentally into debate ; but never before have they
been presented in the case of direct and absolute antagonism
between the laws, process and authority of a State and of the
United States. The insurgents of Western Pennsylvania, in
the last century, did not assume to act under any law of that
commonwealth, and found no countenance or support from any

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 91

other legally constituted authorities. No State in the Union
gave aid or comfort to the conspiracy of Aaron Burr, nor was
the murder of Gorsuch and the rescue of his slaves pretended
to have been done under any statute or process of the State of
Pennsylvania. Neither did that ancient and loyal common
wealth, in the yet later cases from the county of Luzerne, re
quire or permit her Attorney-General or any of his deputies
to appear in her behalf. The rescue of Crafts, and the at
tempted rescue of Sims and of Burns, all occurred before the
age of Personal Liberty Bills and statutes of treason, miss-
called Acts of Habeas Corpus ; and the Rosetta and Gaines
cases both were decided before the capitol and the legislative
halls of Ohio were prostituted to the wicked and incendiary
purposes of domestic treason and discord. State Judges and
courts have, indeed, before this, now and then called upon
officers of the United States to appear at their bar, bringing
with them the prisoners held in custody ; and, in one instance,
the Supreme Court of a State, and in another a tribunal of this
city certainly not the highest in rank and dignity, and a Judge
bearing a name not the most honored in military annals, as
sumed to overrule the Congress, the Executive, the inferior
courts of the Union, the highest judicial tribunals of most of
the States and the most respectable of the States, and the
Supreme Court of the United States, and pronounce the Fugi
tive Slave Act of 1850 unconstitutional, null and void. But
these things were done as in the green tree ; these were the
pioneers, the advance guard of the army of sedition and civil
discord.

" Other States also have, indeed, enacted what, in the hour
of madness and folly which confounds all distinctions and mis
applies all names, they have chosen to call Personal Liberty Bills,
organizing resistance to the authority and process of the courts
of the Union. Instead of the bold and manly nullification of
South Carolina, where resistance to what she deemed and de
clared unconstitutional legislation put on the form and assumed
the virtues and the heroism of patriotism, New England set the
example, and we have followed it, of instituting the petit treason
of a small and contemptible warfare of process of writs and
of counter-writs — a war not of soldiers and artillery, with the
pomp and circumstance of ordinary warfare, but of sheriffs and
constables and bum-bailiffs, and Justices of Peace and probate

92 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

judges, of marshals and deputy-marshals; a war of dirk-
knives and single-barreled pistols and revolving six-shooting
pistols, with or without powder and caps and ball ; a warfare
in which, just the reverse of what happened at the battle of
Pavia, nothing is lost except honor. It is easy, indeed, to see,
and melancholy to reflect, that this small and contemptible
warfare of process must soon bring us to the sterner conflicts
of regular and organized military array, when the armies of the
State and of the United States shall meet in deadly and most
bloody and most disastrous battle. We see now and hear but
the beginning of the end. In other States, far removed from
the mysterious line or parallel which separates the slave and
the free States, where this insane and belligerent legislation
prevailed, no case, happily, of collision has as yet occurred. But
to us here in Ohio, most unfortunately, it has been reserved —
as was and is inevitable from our position geographically,
bordering nearly five hundred miles on the slaveholding States
of Virginia and Kentucky — to exhibit the first example of
that conflict of law and authority which the miscalled Habeas
Corpus Act of 1856 has rendered inevitable. Here, just before
and in the midst of us, behold the first fruits of this pernicious
and baleful legislation. It was saicf the other day .that for
more than forty years, and until the nullification ordinance and
act of South Carolina, no power to issue writs of habeas corpus,
in cases such as this is, was conferred upon the Judges of the
Federal Courts, and that for some years afterward it lay dor
mant and unexercised. Very true, very true; but legislation
is always the offspring of the general or the special and tempo
rary circumstances and necessities which surround us.

" For sixty-eight years, also, the people of Ohio lived hap
pily, freely, prosperously, and in neighborly intercourse with
her sister States and Territories. Without slavery in her own
limits, she yet had no quarrel and waged no war with those
who had. Slaves repeatedly escaped into her territory, and
were always peaceably and quietly, and oftentimes without
officer or warrant, recaptured and remanded. Ohio herself not
many years ago, as I have shown, volunteered to enact a
' fugitive-slave law/ not less stringent, and certainly far more
odious than the now accursed Act of 1850. But times have
changed, and we are changed with them. Men, wise above
what is written — wiser than the fathers ; men of large ca-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 93

pacity and a wisdom and sagacity more than ordinary, more
than human — or, of intellects narrowed and beclouded by
ignorance, bigotry and fanaticism, or seduced by a corrupt,
wicked and depraved ambition, have discovered that the Con
stitution is all wrong, and its compacts all wrong, or rather
that there is a higher law than the Constitution, and that dis
cord is piety and sedition patriotism. They have resolved to
annul and set at naught an important and most essential part
of the Constitution and of its compacts, and to compel the
Government of the United States to succumb to their resolves,
or to bring the authorities of the State and of the Union into
deadly and most destructive conflict. This was the spirit which
dictated the statute — the Personal Liberty Bill — the so-called
Habeas Corpus Act of 1 8 56 . There was no pretence of necessity
for its enactment by reason of anything occurring in the ordi
nary administration of justice by the courts of the State. No
ministerial officer of the Territory or State of Ohio had ever,
in any one single instance during a period of sixty-eight years,
refused to obey a writ of habeas corpus. But very recently a
Marshal of the United States had refused obedience to the order
of a State Court in such a proceeding ; and that most eminent
and upright Judge who for so many years has adorned the
Supreme Bench of the Union — and of whom I may say, as Mr.
Webster said of John Jay, when the spotless ermine of the
judicial robe fell upon him it touched nothing not as spotless as
itself — had justified him in the refusal and discharged him
from confinement by order of the State Judge. And, more
over, a second time in a like case, the same marshal had declined
submission to an order by another Court of this city — a Court
of Probate, appointed to administer upon the goods and chattels
of dead men — requiring him to release his prisoners, because
the Fugitive Slave Act, under which he held them in custody,
was unconstitutional and void ; and again had been sustained
in another forum and by another Judge, of whom I may not
now speak in fitting terms of commendation and respect.

"Thus the firmness and integrity of the judiciary of the
United States had so far triumphed in the conflict, and saved
the laws, process and authority of the Union from violation
and disgrace. The bulwark of the Constitution remained im
pregnable. Possession was found full nine points in the law.
Certainly, therefore, if possession could be had, in the first in-

94 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

stance, of the bodies of the fugitives or others in custody, the
great end of obstructing and defeating the constitutional pro
vision for the reclamation of escaping slaves, and the Act in
pursuance of it, would be attained. And, accordingly, as I have
already established, for the first time within the history of this
State, or indeed of any other State, the writ of personal re
plevin in the case of prisoners held under judicial process, was
introduced into our legislation, and one officer commanded to
take by force from another officer the prisoners held in his
custody. Collision among State officers was not expected, and
indeed could not well arise. But in the case of independent
sovereignties exercising authority and executing independent
process within the same territory, it was expected and intended

— I stand justified by the facts in affirming it — that a direct
and absolute conflict would and should occur. To this State
of Ohio, therefore, I am sorry to say — in this District of the
State — and to the county officers of Clark, Green, and Cham
paign, it has in an evil hour been allotted to exhibit the first
example of the collision which was inevitable between the two
governments to which, in equal right though unequal degree,
the sovereignty of the people of this State has been committed.
The case has arisen, the direct issue has been presented, and it
must be met. It is a question of power between these two
depositaries of popular sovereignty. I repeat it, a question of
power, not of right. When South Carolina undertook to nul
lify a statute of Congress, and to set herself in array against
the Government of the Union, she made it a question of con
stitutional right. Recognising her duty to obey the Constitu
tion and all laws in pursuance of it, no matter how odious or
unjust, she denied the power of Congress to enact the statute.
But the learned doctors and professors of modern nullification

— the whole collegia ambubaiarum et pharmacopolce — forced
to admit the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act, or at
least the right of the people and States of the South, under the
Constitution, to demand of us the reclamation of their fugitives,
appeal to a higher law than the Constitution, and denounce
the rendition of fugitives from slavery, under any law or
under any constitution, as against this higher law of conscience,
and therefore null and void. Why have they who control just
now the legislation of the State, sought to bring about this
conflict between the courts and ministerial officers of the two

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 95

governments, and by State statutes and State process, through
the machinery of writs of habeas corpus °nd replevin, by
sheriffs, and constables, and probate judges, and justices of the
peace, to harass, impede and obstruct or prevent the execution
of this law? What argument have we heard here in this
court ? Not that the Act is unconstitutional. If it were, the
process held by these deputies was void process, and they were
engaged in the commission of an illegal act. That would have
been a conclusive answer to this whole proceeding. But it has
not been alleged. That question is settled — absolutely put at
rest. Mr. Webster said, six years ago, that no ' respectable
lawyer ' would maintain the unconstitutionality of the Fug
itive Slave Act of 1850. I am confident your Honor would
not have heard an argument upon the question. No; we have
been told that the law is harsh, that it is cruel and unjust,
that it is odious and distasteful to the people. This is the
apology for personal liberty bills and acts of habeas corpus, so-
called, and all the other hindrances and obstructions which have
been interposed to its execution. For this cause, and this cause
only, it has been declared — not here, certainly, but elsewhere —
that it cannot and shall not be put in force, at least within the
'sovereign States' of Clark, Green, and Champaign; that
wheresoever else it may be obeyed, there it is and shall remain
a dead letter forever. Upon pretexts and by appeals and
seditious declarations such as these are, the people, or a part
of the people — I trust a very small part, but enough, neverthe
less, to do, or to threaten, great mischief — have been stirred up
to the madness and folly of setting themselves in array against
the Government of the United States, and under the color and
the forms of State statutes and State process, of resisting the
execution of its laws and the process of its courts, and thus of
precipitating upon us the crisis which wicked and designing
men have so long labored to bring about.

"I have no instruction, may it please your Honor, here,
before this tribunal, to discuss the question whether the Act of
1 8 50 be j ustly obnoxious to these reproaches or not. With that
question this Court has no concern. Your Honor, I am sure, is
no authorised expounder of the ' higher law/ as it is taught in
this day, and still less sit here to enforce it. But I may be
permitted to suggest that in its present form, substantially, it
has been the law of the land for more than sixty years ; that by

96 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

nearly one-half of the States of this Union it is regarded as both
reasonable and just ; by a large portion of the people of all the
States as alike necessary and proper, and by all the States,
except one, and by all ' respectable lawyers7 (I quote the words
of Mr. Webster : non meus hie sermo est ; )ie is responsible for
it, not I ) as in strict conformity with the Constitution of the
Union. If it be indeed harsh, cruel and unjust, it is not be
cause it provides means improper or more than adequate to attain
its end — they have indeed proved scarce sufficient as they are
— but because it remands the ' panting fugitive' to slavery.
' The head and front of its offending hath this extent : no more.7
If so, then it is the Constitution which is harsh, cruel and unjust.
It is the Constitution which is odious and distateful to that por
tion of the people of this State who entertain these sentiments,
and who make them the reason or the pretext for their resistance
to the process and authority of the United States. It is the
Constitution which must be abrogated or nullified, and they
who execute or who would maintain and defend it, made odious
and set at defiance.

" But these are doctrines and notions which find no countenance
or support within these walls. Here at least they may not,
and will not, be hearkened to with patience. I have a right,
then, to repeat again that this is solely a question of power
between the two governments. And it is fortunate perhaps
for us that this issue is thus clearly and directly presented here,
and in this case. It is here, and here in all its breadth and
fulness and extent — a direct and inevitable conflict of law and
process between the State and the United States. It is here, the
first, the natural, the necessary fruits of the insane and aggressive
legislation which for some years has prevailed in several of the
States of this Union — itself both the effect and the cause, the off
spring and the parent of the violent and highly excited public
sentiment which has already resulted, first, in this resistance to
the process of your courts, and finally in the melancholy and mur
derous tragedy of the other day. The exigence of the writ to
the marshals commanded them, to take and bring the bodies
of their prisoners to Cincinnati, before a Commissioner of the
United States. The exigence of the writ to the sheriff com
manded him to take these same prisoners from the custody of
the marshals, and carry them to Urbana before a State Judge.
Both could not be obeyed. Resistance and collision were

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 97

inevitable, and they followed, aggravated and embittered ex
ceedingly by the violent and fanatical hostile sentiments of those
who pursued and denounced the marshals as ruffians, while they
encouraged and applauded the prisoners as the martyrs of
liberty.

" The case is here, and to the marshals concerned it is of the
last and most vital importance. Their liberties are at stake.
If the Government of the United States is powerless or is un
willing to protect them in the discharge of the duties which it
has imposed upon them, it is easy to see what the result of a
trial must be in the midst of the deep excitement which pre
vails in the counties where these acts were done, stimulated
as that excitement has been day by day through the public
press, in public assemblies, and upon the public highways, bv
the most wilful and reckless misrepresentation of facts, and
the most violent denunciation of these deputies as pirates and
outlaws. In ordinary times and upon other subjects the
people of the counties concerned are no doubt as honest, as in
telligent, as upright as the people of any other counties. But
in this case and upon the question involved in it, they have
been wrought up to madness and folly. In resisting the exe
cution of the Fugitive Slave Act, they think they do God's
service. With them, or rather with the honest but misguided
portion of them, it is a sort of superstition — a species of re
ligious fanaticism — a motive and an element in all popular
commotions, as all history attests, the most powerful and con
trolling. There are, doubtless, hundreds among them, as
among others elsewhere, who in the crusade against this law
of the United States, are ready to adopt and repeat the battle-
cry of the Saracens, ' Paradise is before us and hell-fire at our
backs ! ' In such a state of public sentiment I have no con
fidence in any class of men. It is this self-same spirit which
in every age has lighted up the fires of persecution, and put
thousands to death with every aggravation of torture and
cruelty. It is this spirit — the true spirit of the ' higher law ' —
which sets at defiance every claim of justice, every call of hu
manity, every law of God, of nature and of man. In the ninth
century, in the earlier ages of the Mohammedan faith, other
religions being also tolerated, the Fire-worshippers of Persia
possessed a temple in the city of Herat, which in the midst of
a religious tumult was attacked and razed to the ground, and

98 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQEAM.

a mosque erected upon the site where it had stood. The Magi
appealed for justice and restitution to the Caliph ; but four
thousand Mohammedan citizens of Herat, of a grave character
and mature age, deliberately and unanimously swore that the
idolatrous temple never had existed. Human nature is the
same in every age. The people of the times and the country
we live in are no better by nature than the people of any other
country or any other period of the world's history. The people
of the counties of Clark, Green, and Champaign, though no
worse, are no better either than the people of other counties
and States of this Union ; and pardon me, gentlemen, they
have already prejudged this case and pronounced upon the
guilt of these deputies.

" But great, may it please your Honor, as their stake in this
question may be personally, it is not they who are chiefly con
cerned. The whole people of the District, of the State, of the
United States, of other nations, and of the ages which shall suc
ceed the age we live in, are alike and most profoundly in
terested in the result. It is a question of the peace and the per
petuity of our Government, and with it of free government all
over the globe, and in all coming time. If any one State of
this Union may disregard or annul any one law in pursuance
of it, because in its judgment it is harsh, cruel and unjust, any
other State may, in like manner and upon like pretexts, dis
obey and set at naught any other part of this same Constitution,
or any other law under it. If the people or part of the
people of Ohio may prohibit or practically prevent the execu
tion of the Fugitive Slave Law within her limits, the people, or
a part of them, of South Carolina, may also annul and disobey
the Acts to abolish the slave trade ; and by State statutes and
State process, by habeas corpus and replevin, through her min
isterial officers and her courts, vex, harass, and finally beat
down and render powerless the judiciary of the Union. How
long, then, can the governments of either the States or the
United States endure; and what, above all, are they worth
while they do endure? The end of these things is death.

" But I am confident that this Court is prepared, that the
whole Government of the United States is prepared, to meet
this issue just as it is presented. And I tell Mr. Attorney-
General, and through him the Executive of the State, whose
vain defiance he has this day borne here to this presence, that

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 99

it is not to be awed by threats, nor to be put down by denun
ciation, nor to be turned aside from its firm purpose to enforce
the laws and the process of its courts, in any event and at all
hazards, and without respect to persons or to States, whether
those States be Rhode Island or Ohio. And whensoever this
Court, or any other Court of the Union, shall have judicially
ascertained and declared the rights and powers of the Govern
ment to execute its laws and its process in any pending case,
I know that the Executive of the Union stands prepared,
faithfully, fearlessly and sternly, if need be, and by the whole
power of the Government, to preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution from all the assaults of its enemies."

We have presented a considerable portion of this speech
because it affords a clear view of the interesting questions in
volved in the case, and gives some idea of the sectional feeling
and disregard for the laws of the United States which existed
among the Abolitionists at that time in the State of Ohio.
There seemed serious danger of an actual collision with the
General Government; and it is said that Governor Chase con
sulted with officers of the State Militia upon the subject, and
actually made arrangements for armed hostility. The matter
was also discussed in President Buchanan's cabinet, and it was
determined by the President that the authority and dignity
of the Government should be maintained at all hazards. The
storm however blew over, the Deputy Marshals were discharged
by order of the Court, and were not again molested ; but the
Abolitionists succeeded in their principal object, for the negroes
were never re-captured.

On the first of December, 1857, Mr. Vallandigham, relin
quishing for a timewds legal practice, now large and lucrative,
repaired to Washington to prosecute the contest for his seat in
Congress. There he remained nearly six months, his patience

100 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and temper severely tried by the long delay. This delay was
occasioned by the division which had arisen in the Democratic
party upon the Lecompton question. For months this question
agitated Congress and the country, and on account of the com
plications arising from its discussion, the contested election
case was delayed and the result for a long time doubtful.
When the case came up before the Committee of Elections,
Mr. Vallandigham was represented by Col. Geo. W. McCook.
He also filed a very elaborately prepared brief, and made a
speech before Congress in support of his claims which was
regarded as very able. The majority report of the Committee
drawn up by the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, was in
favor of the contestant, and made the following summary of
the result : —

The whole number of votes cast for Mr. Vallandigham, as appears

by the original returns, 9,319

To this add three votes improperly rejected, 3

9,322
Deduct for illegal votes cast for Mr. Vallandigham 15

Correct vote 9,307

The whole number of votes cast for Mr. Campbell, as appears by

the original returns, ' 9,338

Add one ballot improperly rejected ; 1

9,339
Deduct for illegal votes 55

9,284
Reaving a majority for the contestant of 23.

On the 25th of May, 1858, this report was adopted by a
vote of 107 to 100, and Mr. Vallandigham was admitted to
a seat in Congress as the Representativew>f the 3d District
of Ohio, and was immediately sworn in. Soon after, Congress
adjourned, and he returned to his home.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 101

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer presents the
following account of the closing up of this contested election

case :-

" I have not noticed in any Western paper an account of
the closing up of the contested election case of Yallandigham
vs. Campbell. This case has attracted attention from all parts
of the country, and a detail of its finale may be interesting to
your readers.

"On Thursday, the 20th inst., Mr. Harris, Chairman of
the Committee on Elections, reported from the Committee that
the Minnesota members were entitled to be sworn in, reserving
the right to contest in the future. Before this, when the
credentials were first presented, on motion of Mr. Sherman, of
Ohio, and for the purpose of preventing their being sworn in
before the Yallandigham and Campbell case should come up,
the credentials were referred to the Committee on Elections.

"They were tied up there a week for the same purpose, and
when reported back they desired more time, under the pretence
of printing the reports ; and when the previous question was sus
tained on the passage of the resolutions admitting them, the
Eepublicans then began to ' filibuster/ by a series of dilatory and
embarrassing motions, trying to force a postponement of the ad
mission, so as to try to slip the Ohio case in ahead ; and this
system of tactics was kept up from Thursday until Saturday at
a great expense, and to the detriment of the public business at
the close of the session. But they were defeated, and the
Minnesota members came in.

"However, on the next Tuesday, when the Ohio case came
up for the vote, and it became evident that Mr. Yallandigham
would get the seat, they commenced again, under the lead of
Mr. Sherman, to ( filibuster/ but finding the temper of the
House against it, they subsided, and Mr. V. was at once de
clared to have been duly elected, and was sworn in.

" Mr. Yallandigham had many warm friends and supporters
in the Senate and House throughout the session; among them
Stevenson, Phillips, and Boyce, of the Committee on Elections,
and Stephens, Houston, Faulkner, John Cochran, Hughes, J.
Glancy Jones, Bocock, and others. But he is especially in
debted, I think, to Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi, whose able re
port was very effective in sustaining the case, and whose

102 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. YALLANDIGHAM,

earnest, vigorous, ready and conclusive replies, in a running
and skirmishing debate of several hours, demonstrated the fact
that he is not only a scholar and a thinker, but a keen, ready
and acute debater, and destined to become a leader in the House.
His speech was a success in that sort of debate which is more
valuable in a deliberative assembly than a thousand set speeches
and essays.

" The speech of Mr. Stevenson of Kentucky was also a very
able argument, as was to be expected of one whose reputation as
a sound lawyer stands deservedly high here and at home.

" Many encomiums were made upon the argument of Mr.
Vallancligham. Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, pronounced it the
best ( first effort' he ever heard in the House, and Mr.
Groesbeck complimented the argument as evincing fine legal
ability and merit. Mr. "V. spoke in a clear, easy and pleasant
style, entirely free from affectation, and received close attention
from the House and a large crowd of spectators in the galleries.

"Throughout the whole contest his fair and courteous con
duct and personal worth have created for him many warm
friends, who, in common with the entire Democratic side of the
House, were rejoiced at his success."

Shortly after his return home he was again announced as a
candidate for Congress, without the formality of a convention,
but designated unanimously by the Central Committees of the
three counties, who acted in accordance with the well-known
wishes of the Democracy of the District ; and in October was
re-elected by a majority of 188 over Mr. Campbell, who was
again his competitor. This election to the 36th Congress, and
his success a few months before in the contest for a seat in the
35th, were highly gratifying to Mr. Yallandigham. For
years he had been unsuccessful in all his political aspirations.
The principal cause of this was his stern opposition to slavery
agitation ; but there were other causes. When only twenty years
of age, and about to enter upon his active political career, he
remarked to his eldest brother that he was determined to. be an

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 103

honest politician. His brother, though highly approving his
resolution, suggested to him that he had a very hard road be
fore him — that in all probability he would fail ; to which he
replied in his earnest and emphatic manner : — " If I cannot suc
ceed, pursuing an honest and upright course, / am willing to
fail" That course he did pursue through life ; and although
he did not entirely fail, though his honorable ambition was to
a certain extent gratified, he would have been much more suc
cessful by pursuing a different course. Had he been willing
to consult policy, to court popular applause, to yield some
times that which he believed to be right to that which appeared
to be expedient, riches and honors and offices would have
been at his command. But his unbending determination to
follow the course he had originally marked out, and his bitter
hostility to Abolitionism, because he saw from the beginning
that it would ultimately result in civil war, and perhaps a dis
solution of the Union, were for years an insurmountable bar
rier to his political advancement. To this he refers in his
speech of January 14, 1863: — "Sir, I am one of that number
who have opposed Abolitionism, or the political development
of the Anti-Slavery sentiment of the North and West, from the
beginning. In school, at college, at the bar, in public as
semblies, in the Legislature, in Congress, boy and man, as a
private citizen and in public life, in time of peace and in time
of war, at all times and at every sacrifice I have fought against
it. It cost me ten years' exclusion from office and honor, at that
period of life when honors are sweetest. No matter ; I learned
early to do right and to wait."

During the time he was detained at Washington, awaiting
the result of his contest for the seat in Congress, he passed but

104 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

few idle moments. He constantly attended the sittings of the
House, and carefully studied the laws and observed the usages
of parliamentary bodies ; and this he continued to do during
the session of 1858-9, taking but little part in the debates.
The natural result of this was that he became better ac
quainted, more thoroughly conversant with the rules govern
ing the proceedings of deliberative bodies than almost any public
man of his day. This fact was well known and recognised in
the Thirty-sixth and the Thirty-seventh Congress, so that during
the session of 1862, a member, neither personally nor politically
friendly to him, said : — " I am always uneasy when Yallandig-
ham is out of his seat, lest some mischief should be slipped in
contrary to rule." His knowledge of the rules of the House
and his skill in their application, and clear understanding of
parliamentary law, were of great value to himself and his party
during the Thirty-seventh Congress, when the Democracy was
so powerless for lack of numbers. Naturally quick-tempered
and impatient, he yet exercised such a restraint over himself
that these qualities were seldom exhibited in his congressional
contests ; and his coolness and perfect self-possession amid the
most exciting scenes and most stormy debates, surprised his
friends, and commanded the respect and even the admiration of
his political foes.

During the session of 1858-9, as we have already remarked,
Mr. Yallandigham did not take a very active part in debate ;
on two or three occasions, however, he briefly addressed the
House.

On the 14th of December, 1858, he made a few remarks in
favor of the resolution to impeach Judge Watrous, of Texas,
who was accused of corruption in office for private gain. He

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 105

drew the distinction between cases of impeachment in England
and the United States. He claimed that all analogies drawn
from the rules and practice governing impeachments in Eng
land, tended only to mislead and confuse in the consideration
of this case. In England the punishment is the same as upon
conviction in any other court, extending even to the death
penalty. Not so under our Constitution ; none but civil officers
are subject to impeachment here, and the judgment — not the
punishment ; for that word is not used — extends no further
than to removal from office. The object of impeachment in
England is the punishment or suppression of crime ; in this
country, first, restraint upon public officers, and secondly, the
removal of such as shall in any manner misdemean. No great
crime need be alleged to justify it here ; it is sufficient to war
rant it that a misdemeanor is charged.

" What then," said he, " is judicial misbehavior or misde
meanor ? That, Sir, depends wholly upon the standard which
you shall fix for judicial character and conduct. Mine, I con
fess, is the highest. I would have both as pure as the ( fanned
snow that's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er,' and as
spotless as the ermine which was once the emblem of judicial
purity. The integrity of the Judge ought to be above suspi
cion in his great office. I wonld have him the sanctissimus
judex of the Romans ; for to the litigant in his court he stands
in the place of God. Save impeachment, he is subject to no
responsibility except an enlightened conscience and a religious
sense of duty. Theoretically, indeed, the judiciary is in every
country, to a great extent, of necessity an arbitrary power.
Even when hedged in by law, there yet remains the vast field
of ' judicial discretion ; and beyond all lies the boundless ocean
of the ' interpretation of laws' — the great Business of the
Judge. Sir, there are ten thousand ways in which a corrupt, a
weak, or a prejudiced Judge, a Judge hostile or friendly to the
litigant, or what is more common the lawyer, may pervert
justice, pollute its pure fountains, and do foul wrong in the

106 LIFE OF. CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

cause, and yet none but he who has suffered know it. These
are the false weights which it is so easy, unperceived, to throw
into the scales of justice. Add now to all this that the judi
cial power, like the invisible and impalpable air which sur
rounds, ^penetrates everywhere and affects every relation of
life ; that it extends even to life itself, to liberty, to property
in all its infinite complications ; to marriage, divorce, parent
age, master and servant, and finally pursues us even after
death in the distribution of estates ; nay, that the very monu
ments of the dead, the dull cold marble in which they sleep,
are the subjects of its destroying or protecting hand. There
is no department of the Government therefore which is so
liable to abuse as the judiciary ; but to the honor of America
and human nature be it said, there is none where so little
abuse prevails. In seventy years this is the first example of
the impeachment of a Judge demanded because of alleged cor
ruption in office for private gain. Arbitrary and dissolute
Judges have indeed been impeached, though but in two or
three instances during that long period; yet none for corrup
tion. But if infrequent, it is nevertheless the most atrocious,
and in its consequences to the judiciary and to the public the
most dangerous crime which a Judge can commit; for c there
is no happiness, there is no liberty, there is no enjoyment in
life, unless a man can say when he rises in the morning, I shall
be subject to the decision of no unjust Judge to-day.7 "

After remarking that the members of the House were not
the judges, the grand jurors, nor exercising judicial power, nor
even acting in their representative capacity, but that their pro
vince was simply to accuse and to carry on the prosecution
against the party accused, he urged that the House should not
be slow to listen to complaints of those who invoke its process
to summon the accused into Court.

" If, indeed, the case be palpably frivolous, or the prosecu
tion plainly malicious, it is our duty promptly, if not indig
nantly, to refuse. Can any one, will any one say that this is
such a case? But it has been said that there is too much doubt
and perplexity in this case, and that therefore there ought to be

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 107

no impeachment. Not so. We have no power to try and acquit ;
and these very perplexities and doubts> if indeed any such
there are, especially after the accused has been heard fully in
his defence, are of themselves enough to justify this House in
sending the case to the Senate for adjudication."

He concluded by saying : —

" For one, Mr. Speaker, wheresoever else in this Govern
ment corruption may come, or how far soever elsewhere it may
be carried, I demand that there shall be preserved one cita
del at least within which public virtue may retire and stand
intrenched."

On the 24th of February, 1859, he addressed the House of
Representatives upon the Tariff, attacking the Tariff of 1857.
He said he was no friend to the Act of 1857; that it was pecu
liarly a manufacturer's tariff, and a highly protective tariff too,
the most protective tariff ever enacted. It protected in two
modes. It admitted the raw material free, and it lays also a duty
upon the manufactured article. He then referred to the man
ner in which the interests of his constituents and the farmers,
especially the wool-growers of Ohio, had been disregarded in
the Act of 1857.

"Ohio," he said, "is peculiarly an agricultural State. With
two millions and a half of people, she has twenty-five millions
of acres : twenty millions occupied by or attached to farms ;
eleven millions actually cultivated; four hundred thousand
land-owners; a greater number of farms and more tillable sur
face, proportionally, than any State in the Union. The cost
value of her land is $600,000,000; her agricultural products
worth $132,000,000, equal to the whole cotton crop of the
South ; and her entire taxable property is $900,000,000. She
is the first wheat, the first wool, and the first corn-growing
State; the first wine-producing also; and as my Cincinnati
colleagues will attest, the foremost in the production of swine.
Her animal products alone equal $40,000,000, and the value

108 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of her butter, poultry, and eggs would of itself support half
the State Governments of New England. And yet Ohio is a
part, and a small part only, of the great Mississippi valley,
that most wonderful of all portions of the globe, the very Gar
den of Eden in the new creation — in the political apocalypse
of the Bishop of Cloyne, ( Time's noblest empire ! ' the seat,
too, doubtless, of empires older than Thebes, prouder than
Tyre, nobler than Nineveh, but whose memorials have perished
even beyond ruins or tradition ; yet destined once again to be
come the seat of an empire to which you, ye proud men and
wise men of the East, will yet come bearing your frankincense
and your tribute."

He then, by reference to statistics, exhibited the injustice
done to the wool-growing and other interests of the West by
the Tariff, and announced that he was not demanding " pro
tection " for his people, but simply just and equal taxation.
He wras very often interrupted during his speech by various
members who were in favor of the Act of 1857, whose questions
he answered promptly and satisfactorily. He concluded by
giving notice that should any tariff bill be reported during
the session, he should move as a substitute that the tariff of
1846 be revived for two years, so that meantime a revision of
the Act of 1857 might be had, adhering to tne principle of
ad valorem, and also to all the other rules of equal and just
taxation.

At the close of the session Mr. Vallandigham returned
home and spent the summer and fall in recreation, in attention
to professional business, and to matters pertaining to his office
as a member of Congress. In prosecution of the latter, about
the middle of October he visited Washington.

On Sunday night, the 16th of October, 1859, at Harper's
Ferry, Virginia, the great civil war between the North and the
South was commenced. On that night John Brown, attended

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 109

by eighteen of his comrades, crossed the Potomac Eiver from
the Maryland shore, and captured the United States Arsenal,
regardless of the Stars and Stripes whose folds were supposed
to protect it. Armed parties were then sent out to capture
prominent slaveholders in the immediate neighborhood, and to
announce the glorious tidings of freedom to the slaves. The
first indication of their presence to the citizens of the town was
on the arrival of the mail train going East, on the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, about half-past one in the morning. When
the train arrived it was stopped by a guard of two men, well
armed, who had orders from John Brown to let no one pass
over the bridge. The first man they killed was a free negro
named Hay ward, an employee : they shot him just after the
arrival of the train, and he lingered in great agony until after
daylight, when he died. The train of cars, after being delayed
some hours, was permitted to go on its way, but neither the
railroad employees nor the passengers gathered any very clear
idea of the cause of their detention. When daylight came,
the inhabitants of the village, as fast as they appeared on the
street, were captured and carried to the engine-house, a building
very near to the Arsenal. Many slaves had by this time been
brought in, and pikes were placed in their hands by the insur
gents, and they were directed to strike for freedom ; but the
astounded and frightened Africans gazed with dilated eyes and
terror-stricken countenances at the arms provided and at the
stern-looking body of men who surrounded them, and showed
no disposition to take part in the war for " liberty." The
morning was far advanced before the presence of the insurgents
was generally known in the village. The news then flew like
wild-fire, and from all directions the people flocked with arms

110 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

in their bands to attack the invaders. Before night, all of
Brown's party who were not in the engine-house with him,
except those on the Maryland side, were either killed or
captured, and he was surrounded. Three citizens of Virginia
were killed and several wounded by Brown's men during the
course of the day. Meanwhile intelligence of the affair had
reached Washington, and the marines on duty at the Navy- Yard
were ordered to the scene of action. They were under command
of Col. Robert E. Lee, afterwards the great commander of the
Southern army. The marines arrived at Harper's Ferry on
Monday night. Early on Tuesday morning Colonel Lee sent
Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart (subsequently the dashing com
mander of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia)
demanding a surrender. Brown refused to surrender, unless
upon his own terms. Immediately the order to storm the
engine-house was given, and executed with promptitude. One
marine was killed and one wounded by the insurgents in the
assault. The contest was, however, quickly ended. The
leader, John Brown, was cut down by the sword of Lieutenant
Green, and the insurgents who resisted were bayoneted. In
less than thirty-six hours the insurrection was put down ; but
during that short time, John Brown's party killed five meii
and wounded nine, and lost themselves ten men killed. The
excitement and apprehension in Virginia were, however, very
great, which afforded a portion of the Republican press founda
tion for sneering comment. Many remarks were made upon
what was , termed the cowardice of old Virginia, frightened
out of all propriety by eighteen men. Not quite three years
afterwards, however, the people of old Virginia considered them
selves avenged when nearly 12,000 Northern troops, at the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. Ill

same place, well fortified, splendidly armed, with seventy-three
pieces of artillery, surrendered to the Virginian, Stonewall
Jackson, who had but fewmofe men and much less artillery —
surrendered too when 100,000 men were hastening to their
rescue.

Mr. Vallandigham, who was in Washington the night that
John Brown made the attack upon Harper's Ferry, started thence
to return home on Monday morning. When he got to Baltimore
he heard of the insurrection, as it was termed, and was delayed
in that city by the unsettled condition of affairs until Wednes
day morning the 19th of October. He arrived at the scene of
the late conflict about noon, and determined to remain there
until the evening train. Filled with many sad forebodings as
to the future, he wandered around the town, making inquiries
of citizens and soldiers about the late events. At last he
returned towards the railroad bridge, and stood surveying, in
deep reflection, the magnificent scenery around him. As he
stood looking southward, his mind busy with anxious thoughts,
if the future had been opened to his gaze, what a wonderful
panorama of scenes to be enacted in and around this already
historical place would have been presented to his vision!
Beyond the Bolivar heights in front of him. lay the beautiful
Shenandoah valley. In that beautiful valley he might have
beheld the chivalrous Ashby at the head of his brave troopers,
careering upon his white horse, or meeting with a calm smile
the fatal shot which stretched him on the plain ; then, too, the
thousands of blue coats faring southward under General Banks,
or meeting in dread battle-array under Shields the fierce attack
of Stonewall Jackson at Kernstown ; the glittering bayonets of
Fremont's hosts as they impatiently pushed forward to meet

112 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

their fate at Cross Keys ; the ragged legions of " Stonewall " as
they gathered around Harper's Ferry from the South, already
having closed the outlets east, west, and north ; the white plume
of Stuart, and the long line of his gay cavaliers returning after
the raid to Chambersburg; the valiant Averill with his Northern
and Western saberers, hard pressed but not dismayed, leader of
many a raid down the valley ; the gray ranks of the South
surging over the intrench ments at Winchester, and the hurried
flight of Milroy's forces ; the clanking of sabres and the wild
rush of horses when the gallant Mulligan fell foremost in the
fray, so clearly loved by his friends, so highly respected by his
foes; the booming of artillery and the fierce yell of Sheridan's
troopers as they charged at Opequon and sent Early whirling
down the valley, and " old Jubal," never despairing, in the
mists of early morning bursting upon his unsuspecting foe, for
a time carrying everything before his impetuous attack ; the
famous day that Sheridan's ride is said to have saved his army
from destruction ; the reckless riders of Mosby, and the restless
rovers of McNeill, moving stealthily through the shades of the
forest ; the beautiful valley wet with blood, smoking with confla
gration, and swept by fire, sword, and famine as by the besom of
destruction, yet consecrated by glorious memories, the halo of
romance gathering with the years around its mountain walls,
every glen its history, each cross-road its story, and every house
hold with its precious relic of " the times which tried men's souls."
Behind him lay South Mountain, the autumn glories of its num
berless forest-trees painted in gorgeous dyes by Nature's skil
ful hand, awaiting the day when upon its slopes, amidst the
roaring of cannon and rattle of musketry, the men who wore
the blue and those who wore the gray should be laid low, " in

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 113

one red burial blent." And there too, but a short distance, was
the pleasant valley of the Antietam, whose bright waters were
yet to be crimsoned with brothers' blood, and around whose
hills, now wreathed in the soft haze of Indian summer, the
darkening smoke, the sulphury pall of battle soon should gather ;
and eastward a little way, the Monocacy tripping lightly over
its pebbly bed to join the Potomac, where now indeed it was
"all quiet" — the Monocacy through whose mimic waves
the Louisiana brigade of Early's army pressed on to victory in
the bright sunlight of July 1864. As he stood there in deep
reflection, dreading the coming years but little dreaming of the
magnitude of the mighty struggle approaching, and hoping
his apprehensions might prove false, Colonel Eobert E. Lee
came up, and he was invited to go and see old John Brown, to
whom, in later days, John Wilkes Booth- was the Southern
complement.

So, in company with Senator Mason, Hon. C. J. Faulkner,
and General Jeb Stuart (Lieutenant only then), he entered
the room where " Ossawatomie " Brown and his devoted
follower Stevens lay. Brown was lying on the floor, his face
still disfigured with blood from the sabre-wound in his head,
and begrimmed with powder and dirt, suffering pain, but full
of life and spirit. He was anxious to talk, not the least
frightened, and his courage and composure extorted respect
from all, and filled Mr. V.'s mind with indignation as he
pictured to himself the cowardly miscreants in high places who
had urged on a brave, but misguided and almost insane, man-
to deeds of cruelty and bloodshed, whilst they in perfect
security sat in cushioned chairs a thousand miles away, conning,
speeches upon the Slavery question, raising subscriptions to-.

114 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

buy rifles and ammunition to carry on war in the South, and
neglecting or oppressing the poor and wretched around them.
Stevens, a large, rather good-looking, light-complexioned, light-
haired, heavy-bearded man, with bright restless gray eyes, his
gaze wandering from one to another of those around him, lay
near his chief. He was suffering from three gunshot wounds,
and occasionally groaned from pain. A considerable number
of persons were in the room gazing with curiosity upon the
prostrate forms, but quiet and orderly in demeanor. Brown
seemed anxious to converse, and talked freely to any one who
addressed him. Mr. Vallandigham conversed a few minutes
with him, and from papers published about the time, and from
information derived from Mr. V. himself, the writer thinks the
subjoined is substantially the conversation which occurred.
While Mr. V. was talking to him, several others asked him
questions and received answers, some of which are not mentioned
in this report of the interview.

Brown was talking about the conflict when Senator Mason
and Mr. Vallandigham approached him. Senator Mason said
to him : " How do you justify your acts ? "

Brown. — " I think, my friend, you are guilty of a great
wrong against God and humanity. I say that without wish
ing to be offensive."

Some person remarked, " That may be true possibly. But
suppose it is, you are not responsible for it; you are not a citizen
of Virginia, and it is none of your business, so it don't inter
fere with you."

Broitm. — " It would be perfectly right for any one to inter
fere with you at any time and all times. I hold that the
Golden E.ule, ' Do unto others as you would others would do

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 115

unto you/ applies to all who would help others to gain their
liberty."

Lieut. Stuart. — "But you don't believe in the Bible?"

Brown. — " Certainly I do."

Mr. Vallandigham. — " Where did your men come from ?
Did some of them come from Ohio?"

Brown. — " Some of them."

Mr. V. — " From the Western Reserve, of course ? None
came from Southern Ohio ? "

Brown. — " Oh yes ; I believe one came from below Steu-
benville, down not far from Wheeling."

Mr. V. — "Have you been in Ohio this summer?"

Brown.—" Yes, Sir."

Mr. V.—" How late?"

Brown. — " I passed through to Pittsburg on my way here
in June."

Mr. V. — "Were you at any County or State fairs there?"

Brown. — " I was not there since June.":

Mr. V. — " Were you ever in Dayton ? "

Brown. — " Yes, I must have been."

jfr. V.— " This summer ? "

Brown. — " No ; a year or two since."

Senator Mason. — " Brown, does this talking annoy you at
all?"

Brown. — " Not in the least."

Mr. V. — " Have you lived long in Ohio ? "

Brown. — "I went there in 1825. I lived in Summit
County, Avhich was then Trunibull County. My native place
is York State."

Mr. V. — " Do you recollect a man in Ohio named Brown,
a noted counterfeiter ? "

116 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Brown. — " I do ; knew him from a boy. His father was
Henry Brown, of Irish or Scotch descent ; the family was very
low."

Mr. V. — " Have you ever been in Portage County ? "

Brown. — " I was there in June last."

Jfr. ym — « "When in Cleveland, did you attend the Fugitive
Slave Law Convention ? "

Brown. — " No ; I was there about the time of the sitting
of the court to try the Oberlin rescuers. I spoke there publicly
on that subject; I spoke on the Fugitive Slave Law, and my
own rescue, of course. So far as I had any reference at all, I
was disposed to justify the Oberlin people for rescuing a slave,
because I have myself forcibly taken slaves from bondage. I
was concerned in taking eleven slaves from Missouri to Canada
last winter. I think I spoke in Cleveland before the Conven
tion ; do not know that I had any conversation with any of the
Oberlin rescuers. "Was sick part of the time I was in Ohio ;
had the ague. Was part of the time in Ashtabula County."

Mr. V. — " Did you see anything of Joshua R. Giddings
there?"

Brown. — " I did meet him."

Mr. V. — " Did you consult with him ? "

Brown. — " If I did I would not tell you, of course, any
thing that would implicate Mr. Giddings, but I certainly saw
him and had a conversation with him."

Mr. V. — " I don't mean about this affair of yours, I mean
about that rescue case."

Brown. — " Oh yes, I did hear him express his opinion on
it very freely and frankly."

Mr. V.—" Justifying it?"

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 117

Brown. — " Yes, Sir ; I do not compromise him by saying
that,"

Here a bystander asked him if he did not go out to Kansas
under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Society of New
England?

Brown. — " No, Sir ; I went under the auspices of Old John
Brown, and nobody else."

Mr. V. — " Will you answer this question ? Did you talk
with Giddings about your expedition here ? " •

Broivn. — " No, Sir, I won't answer that, because a denial of
it I would not make, and to make an affirmation of it I should
be a great dunce."

Mr. V. — " Have you had any correspondence with parties
in the North on the subject of this movement ? "

Brown. — " I have had correspondence."

Mr. Vallandigham now walked away, and a bystander, to
Mr. V. unknown, commenced a conversation with Brown, in
which among other things he asked the latter whether he con
sidered his late attempt to forcibly liberate the slaves was a
religious movement? To this Brown replied that in his
opinion it was the greatest service a man could render to God,
and that he considered himself an instrument in the hands of
Providence. He was asked by another man upon what prin
ciple he justified his acts ? Brown responded, " By the Golden
Rule. I pity the poor in bondage : that is why I am here.
It is not to gratify any personal animosity, or feeling of re
venge, or of a vindictive spirit. It is my sympathy with the
oppressed and wronged, that are as good as you and as precious
in the sight of God."

Bystander. — " Certainly ; but why take the slaves against
their will?"

118 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Brown answered with great warmth, " I never did."

Bystander. — " You did in one instance I know of at least."

Stevens here spoke up and said, "You are right in one
case. In one case I know the negro wanted to go back ;" and
then addressing himself to Brown, " Captain, the gentleman is
right." Brown made no further remark upon the subject.

Mr. Vallandigham, who had approached Stevens when he
commenced speaking, now asked him : " How recently did you
leave Ashtabula County ? "

Stevens. — "Some months ago. I never lived there any
length of time, but have often been through there."

Mr. V. — " How far did you live from Jefferson ? "

Brown advised Stevens not to answer this question, and
Stevens was accordingly silent. He turned over with a groan
and seemed to pay no further attention to those around him ;
he was evidently suffering greatly from his wounds, although
they had been well attended to and skilfully dressed.

Mr. V. to Brown. — " Who were your advisers in this move
ment?"

Brown. — " I have numerous sympathisers throughout the
entire North."

Mr. V.— "In Northern Ohio?"

Brown. — "No, no more than anywhere else in all the
Northern States."

In reply to a question asked by one of the gentlemen stand
ing near, Brown then said he had given up the idea of securing
freedom to the negroes by moral suasion brought to bear on
their masters ; said he, " I don't think the people of the Slave
States will ever consider the subject of slavery in its true light
until some other argument is resorted to than moral suasion."

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 119

Mr. V. — " Did you expect a general rising of the slaves
in case of success ? "

Brown. — "No, Sir, nor did I wish it; I expected to gather
strength from time to time, then I could set them free."

One of the bystanders hinted that Brown had a further
object in view than "freeing the darkies," and referred to the
taking of Col. Washington's watch. Brown said, " Oh yes ;
we intended freely to have appropriated the property of slave
holders to carry out our object. It was for that, and only that;
we had no design to enrich ourselves with any plunder what
ever." Mr. Vallandigham then inquired about his wound, and
seeing the surgeon coming to dress it, left the room.

This interview made a very deep impression upon Mr. V.'s
mind ; he often referred to it, and spoke of John Brown as one
of the most remarkable men he ever met. He was attacked
most violently by the Republican papers for holding the con
versation, and it was much misrepresented ; but he never re
gretted it, nor did he regard his conduct in any way indelicate.
He found Brown not only willing but anxious to talk, and in
the full possession of his mental faculties. He did not press
him to answer any inquiries ; he put him on his guard, in one
instance at least, to consider whether the question should be
answered or not, by prefacing the interrogatory with the
question, "Will you answer this?" and he was kind and cour
teous in his manner to the prisoner, although he knew of his
vicious and bloody career in Kansas. He did desire to learn
whether Brown had any support or assistance from prominent
men in the North in making this most outrageous attack upon
the people of the South.

Although John Brown had been a very bad man, had been

120 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

engaged in the horrible murder of the Doyle family in -Kansas,
and other murders there, had been guilty of stealing horses in
Missouri, yet the desperate sincerity of the man in his anti-
Slavery views could not but awaken a feeling akin to admira
tion in the bosom of one who, in the vindication of his own
peculiar views, was willing at all times to stake fortune, popu
larity, and life itself. He felt profoundly the conviction that if
John Brown was to suffer the penalty for the actual commis
sion of murder and robbery, his aiders and abettors, the acces
sories before the fact, should also be discovered and punished.
With this idea he endeavored in his interview with Brown to
get some clue as to who the parties were that advised and aided
him, and furnished him the means to perpetrate the crimes
which he had committed upon the soil of the Old Dominion.
In answer to the attacks of the Republican papers upon him in
regard to this matter, he published the following letter : —

" DAYTON, O., Saturday, Oct. 22, 1859..
" To the Editor of the Enquirer :

" The Cincinnati Gazette of yesterday contains what purports
to be a conversation between John Brown, the Harper's Ferry
insurgent, and myself. The editorial criticism in that paper,
while unjust, is, nevertheless^ moderate and decent in temper
and language. Not so the vulgar but inoffensive comments
of the Commercial and the Ohio /State Journal of to-day. Self-
respect forbids to a gentleman any notice of such assaults.
But the report and editorial of the Gazette convey an erroneous
impression, which I desire briefly to correct.

" Passing of necessity through Harper's Ferry, on Wednes
day last, on my way home from Washington City, I lay over
at that place between morning and evening trains for the West.
Through the politeness of Colonel Lee, the commanding officer,
I was allowed to enter the Armory enclosure. Inspecting the
several objects of interest there, and ainong them the office

LIFE, OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM, 121

building, I came to the room where Brown and Stevens lay,
and went in, not aware that Senator Mason or any reporter
was present till I entered, and without any purpose of asking
a single question of the prisoners ; and had there been no pris
oners there I should have visited and inspected the place just
as I did, in all these particulars.

" No ' interview ' was asked for by me or any one else of
John Brown, and none granted, whether l voluntarily and
out of pure good- will/ or otherwise. Brown had no voice in
the matter,, the room being open equally to all who were per
mitted to enter the Armory enclosure. All went and came
alike without consulting Brown, nor did he know either my
self or the other gentlemen with whom he conversed. Enter
ing the room, I found Senator Mason, of Virginia, there casu
ally, together with eight or ten others, and Brown conversing
freely with all who chose to address him. Indeed he seemed
eager to talk to every one ; and new visitors were coming and
going every moment. There was no arrangement to have any
reporter; nor did I observe for some minutes after I entered
that any were present. Some one from New York was taking
sketches of Brown and Stevens during the conversation, and
the reporter of the Herald made himself known to me a short
time afterward ; but I saw nothing of the Gazette reporter till
several hours later, and then at the hotel in the village.

" Finding Brown anxious to talk and ready to answer any
one who chose to ask a question, and having heard that the
insurrection had been planned at the Ohio State Fair held at
Zanesville in September, I very naturally made the inquiry
of him, among other things, as to the truth of the statement.
Learning from his answers that he had lived in Ohio for fifty
years, and had visited the State in May or June last, I prose
cuted my inquiries to ascertain what connection. his conspiracy
might have had with the ' Oberlin Rescue ' trials then pend
ing, and the insurrectionary movement at that time made in
the Western Reserve to organise forcible resistance to the Fugi
tive Slave Law ; and I have only to regret that I did not
pursue the matter further, asking more questions and making
them more specific. It is possible that some others who are so
tenderly sensitive in regard to what was developed might have
been equally implicated. Indeed, it is incredible that a mere
casual conversation, such as the one held by me with John

122 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDiGHAM.

Brown, should excite such paroxysms of rage and call forth so
much vulgar but impotent vituperation, unless there be much
more yet undisclosed. Certain it is that three of the negroes,
and they from Oberlin, and at least six of the white men, nine
in all out of the nineteen, including John Brown, the leader
of the insurrection, were, or had been, from Ohio, where they
had received sympathy and counsel, if not material aid in their
conspiracy.

" But the visit and interrogation were both casual, and did
not continue over twenty minutes at the longest. Brown, so
far from being exhausted, volunteered several speeches to the
reporter, and more than once insisted that the conversations did
not disturb or annoy him in the least. The report in the New
York Herald, of October 21st, is generally very accurate,
though several of the questions attributed to me, and particu
larly the first four, ought to have been put in the mouth of
' Bystander/ who, by the way, represents at least half a score
of different persons. As to the charge preferred of ' breach of
good taste and propriety/ and all that, I propose to judge of
it for myself, having been present on the occasion. There
was neither ' interview/ ' catechising/ ' inquisition/ ( pumping/
nor any effort of the kind, but a short and casual conversation
with the leader of a bold and murderous insurrection, a man
of singular intelligence, in full possession of all his faculties,
and anxious to explain his plans and motives so far as pos
sible without implicating his confederates otherwise than by
declining to answer. The developments are important: let
the galled jades wince.

" And now allow me to add that it is vain to underrate
either the man or his conspiracy. Captain John Brown is as
brave and resolute a man as ever headed an insurrection, and,
in a good cause, and with a sufficient force, would have been a
consummate partisan commander. He has coolness, daring,
persistency, the stoic faith and patience, and a firmness of will
and purpose unconquerable. He is tall, wiry, muscular, but
with little flesh — with a cold gray eye, gray hair, beard and
mustache, compressed lips and sharp aquiline nose, of cast-iron
face and frame, and with powers of endurance equal to any
thing needed to be done or suffered in any cause. Though en
gaged in a wicked, mad and fanatical enterprise, he is the far
thest possible remove from the ordinary ruffian,, fanatic or mad-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 123

man ; but his powers #re rather executory than inventive, and
he never had the depth or breadth of mind to originate and
contrive himself the plan of insurrection which he undertook
to carry out. The conspiracy was, unquestionably, far more
extended than yet appears, numbering among the conspirators
many more than the handful of followers who assailed Harper's
Ferry, and having in the North and "West, if not also the
South, as its counsellors and abettors, men of intelligence, posi
tion and wealth. Certainly it was one among the best-planned
and executed conspiracies that ever failed.

" For two years he had been plotting and preparing it with
aiders and comforters a thousand miles apart, in the slave
States and the free ; for six months he lived without so much
as suspicion in a slave State, and near the scene of the insur
rection, winning even the esteem and confidence of his neigh
bors, yet collecting day by day large quantities of arms, and
making ready for the outbreak. He had as complete an equip
ment, even to intrenching tools, as any commander in a regular
campaign, and intended, like Napoleon, to make war support
war. He had Sharpens rifles and Maynard's revolvers for
marksmen, and pikes for the slaves. In the dead hour of
night, crossing the Potomac, he seized the Armory with many
thousand stand of arms and other munitions of war; and
making prisoners of more than thirty of the workmen, officers
and citizens, overawed the town of Harper's Ferry with its
thousand inhabitants. With less than half a score of men
surviving, he held the Armory for many hours, refusing,
though cut off from all succor and surrounded upon all sides, to
surrender, and was taken with sword in hand, overpowered by
superior numbers, yet fighting to the last. During this short
insurrection eighteen men were killed and ten or more severely
wounded — twice the number killed and wounded on the part
of the American force at the Battle of New Orleans.

" John Brown failed to excite a general and most wicked,
bloody and desolating servile and civil war, only because the
slaves and non-slaveholding white men of the vicinity, the
former twenty thousand in number, would not rise. He had
prepared arms and ammunition for fifteen hundred men, and
captured at the first blow enough to arm more than fifty
thousand ; and yet he had less than thirty men — more, never
theless, than have begun half the revolutions and conspiracies

I

124 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDJGHAM.

which history records. But he had not tampered with slaves,
nor solicited the non-slaveholding whites around him, because
he really believed that the moment the blow was struck they
would gather to his standard, and expecting, furthermore, the
promised reinforcements instantly from the North and West.
This was the basis upon which the whole conspiracy was
planned ; and had his belief been well founded, he would un
questionably have succeeded in stirring up a most formidal}le
insurrection, possibly involving the peace of the whole coun
try, and requiring, certainly, great armies and vast treasure to
suppress it.

" Here was his 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 statement of the doctrine of the ' irre
pressible 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 eager to rise against the ' oligarchy/ need
ing only a leader and deliverer. The conspiracy was the natu
ral and necessary consequence of the doctrines proclaimed every
day, year in and year out, by the apostles of Abolition. But
Brown was sincere, earnest, practical : he proposed to add
works to his faith, reckless of murder, treason, and every other
crime. This was his madness and folly. He perishes justly
and miserably — an insurgent and a felon ; but guiltier than
he, and with hi& blood upon their heads, and the blood of all
whom he caused to be slain, are the false and cowardly pro
phets and teachers of Abolition.

"C. L. VALLANDIGHAM."

The sensation in the South occasioned by this remarkable raid
at Harper's Ferry was wide-spread and profound. It created
intense indignation and alarm in all the slaveholding States.
In many of them preparations were immediately commenced
for civil war. What most alarmed thinking men in the South
was this : at the commencement of the anti-Slavery movement
in the North, those who were most deeply interested in the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 125

cause were men of sentimental feeling, Utopian dreamers, im
practicable enthusiasts, transcendental philosophers, Quaker
poets — non-combatants all. Then the politicians took hold of
the movement, and were elevated to places of honor and emolu
ment by its potent influence. But neither of these classes was
regarded as dangerous ; the one shrunk from any physical con
test, the other had no deep convictions, no real heart-earnestness,
and looked upon the anti-Slavery sentiment simply as an ele
ment to use for political advancement — a feeling which would
soon die away when the irritating questions of Territorial govern
ment should be disposed of, and willing to bury it quietly, as
many of them did " Americanism" or "Know-nothingism,"
when its influence should cease to be powerful or to advance
their own personal interests. But this raid developed the fact
that another class was becoming aroused and interested — men
of deeds, men of action ; not cunning schemers or caucus-mana
gers, but fierce, aggressive, strong-handed men, some of them
perhaps unable to give audible expression to the thoughts that
burned within them, but ready to attack, to fight, to shed blood,
to die for the cause in which they had embarked. Truly
Southern statesmen might well be alarmed at this new anti-
Slavery development.

Union meetings were held all over the North for the purpose
of re-assuring the Southern people, and in deprecation of the
attack that had been made upon them. But these could do little
good. The presiding officers and the speakers at these meetings
were conservative men, true patriots, lovers of the Union, but
they were men whose political influence had passed away, poli
ticians from whom the sceptre had departed ; they represented
a minority, and a minority from which the South had no cause

126 LIFE OF CLEMENT -L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and no feeling of apprehension. These meetings had little
significance, and though kindly meant, were useless — perhaps
worse than useless, for they kindled an enthusiasm for Union
without regard to the Constitution ; and thousands who were
yelling around the platform responsive to denunciations of the
Abolition agitators who had " attacked and murdered our
Southern brethren," in less than two years were yelling with
equal enthusiasm as " Southern brethren" by thousands fell
beneath the roar of their cannon and the volleys of their
muskets.

Other measures were needed and would have been effective.
Had the Northern people repealed their " personal liberty bills,"
as they were called, enactments made for the very purpose of
nullifying certain provisions of the Constitution of the United
States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof; had they
ceased to agitate the question of slavery, and left to the people
of the South the same privilege which they themselves
exercised, that of regulating as they pleased their own domestic
institutions, the storm would have blown over. The evil of
slavery — for we acknowledge it was an evil — it is true would for
a time have remained, but ultimately it would have been removed,
gradually, and without detriment to slaveholder or slave; a long
and bloody civil war would have been avoided, the terrible
effects of which are felt to this day, and will be felt for years,
perhaps for generations to come ; the Union would have been
preserved, a Union of love and affection as established by our
fathers ; and peace, harmony and prosperity would have pre
vailed throughout the length and the breadth of our widely
extended country.

CHAPTEK IX.

THE THIKT Y-S IXTH CONGKESS.

ON the 5th day of December, 1859, the Thirty-Sixth Con
gress commenced its first session. It was a time of great ex
citement throughout the country, occasioned by the recent
" John Brown raid," and by the publication and wide circula
tion of a book called the " Impending Crisis." To the former
we have already given considerable space: the latter demands
a passing notice. The "Impending Crisis" was written by
Hinton R. Helper, a man then unknown to fame and without
position in society. A few quotations from the book will ex
hibit its atrocious character and wicked purpose.

The book recommends the following course of action to
citizens of the South not holding slaves : —

1st. — "Thorough organization and independent political
action on the part of the non-slaveholding whites of the
South."

2d. — " Ineligibility of pro-slavery slaveholders. Never
another vote to any one who advocates the retention and per
petuation of human slavery."

3d. — " No co-operation with pro-slavery politicians ; no
fellowship with them in religion ; no affiliation with them in
society."

128 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

4th. — " No patronage to pro-slavery merchants ; no guest-
ship in slave-waiting hotels ; no fees to pro-slavery lawyers ;
no employment of pro-slavery physicians ; no audience to pro-
slavery parsons," &c., &c.

The following sentences also occur in the book : — •

" Against slaveholders as a body we wage an exterminating
war." "*We contend that slaveholders are more criminal than
common murderers." "The negroes, nine cases out of ten,
would be delighted at the opportunity to cut their masters'
throats."

This book, abounding in sentiments like these, and some far
more offensive than any we have quoted, was highly commended
by leading Republicans, was indorsed by a large majority of
Republican Congressmen, and was by them circulated by tens
of thousands in every part of the land.

The excitement prevailing throughout the country was of
course intensely felt and conspicuously exhibited in Congress.
In the House neither of the two great political parties which
nearly equally divided the country, had a majority ; the balance
of power was with what was called the American party ; a
small band, but just then one of influence and importance. In
consequence of this state of things the election of a Speaker
was a very difficult matter, and a bitter struggle ensued, pro
tracted for two months. John Sherman, of Ohio, was nomin
ated by the Republicans ; but as he was an indorser of Helper's
book, Ins election was violently opposed and ultimately de
feated. The discussions from day to day were of a most tur
bulent character. A majority of the members came to the
JSouse armed; fierce words were spoken, and often there
seemed imminent danger of personal collision.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 129

4

On the 14th of December, Mr. "Vallandigham obtained the
floor for the purpose of making a speech ; as, however, it was
late in the evening, he asked for an adjournment. This, though
customary as a matter of courtesy, the Republican members
refused. They knew that he was a bitter opponent of Aboli
tionism ; his interview with John Brown, grossly misrepre
sented as it was by Republican papers, had offended them, and
they determined to annoy him in his effort to speak, or to
prevent it altogether. He, however, took his stand at the
head of the middle aisle, and in the midst of all their disorder
and confusion firmly and calmly maintained it. Postponing
for the present the speech he had intended to make, he con
sumed the time in severe criticism of Helper's book, till, tired
of the unpalatable dose he was administering to them, they
gladly consented to an adjournment. The next morning he
was permitted to speak without interruption. Two brief
extracts from that speech, as reported in the National Intelli
gencer, we here give for the purpose of exhibiting his strong
Union feeling, and the cause and the extent of his Southern
sympathies : —

" Mr. Vallandigham, of Ohio, addressed the House. He
said, though a young man, still he had seen some legislative
service; but he had always endeavored so to be a politician as
not to forget that he was a gentleman, and he was resolved to
exact from others that courtesy which he was always willing
to award. He charged the Republican party with discourtesy
in refusing to adjourn, according to his desire, last evening.
He had said that if any man had endorsed a book of an incen
diary character, and had refused to disavow its sentiments, he
was not fit to be Speaker or member of this House, and he re
peated that assertion to-day. A slaveholder had stated that
such a person was not fit to live, but there was no indignation

9

130 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

on the Republican side of the House manifested as there had
been when he made his declaration. He would inform gentle
men on that side that he was their peer, and he would exact
from them as a Western Democrat the same consideration
which they were forced to give Southern slaveholders. If they
thought otherwise they had yet to learn his character, for he
was as good a Western fire-eater as the hottest salamander in
this House. [Laughter and applause.] He had been served
with a notice this morning that the Republican side did not
intend to listen to any further discussion. He cared not
whether they would listen or not; he told them the country
held its breath in suspense upon every word said here, and he
was determined to declare his sentiments.

" In this sectional controversy he held a position of armed
neutrality. He was not a Northern man with Southern prin
ciples, but a United States man with United States principles ;
but when the South was threatened with armed invasions,
servile insurrections, and the torch of the incendiary, his sym
pathies were wholly for her. He had no respect for Southern
rights simply as such ; let the South defend them, as he knew
they would and could ; but he had a tender regard for his own
obligations. As a Northern man he would give the South all
her constitutional rights, including three-fifths rule, fugitive
slave law, equal rights in the territories, and whatever else the
Constitution gives. [Applause.] He was not true to the
South in the sense of defending Southern institutions and giv
ing Southern votes on questions regardless of his Free State
identity; but he was true to the South, as were the great mass
of the Democratic party in the North, in maintaining all the
constitutional rights of the South against all her enemies what
soever. There were three classes in the country : those who
were pro-slavery, those who were anti-slavery, and those who
occupied a middle or neutral ground ; and to the latter class he
claimed to belong. That, he believed, was the true ground for

all Conservative Union men of this country. He was

opposed to disunion, come from whatever quarter it might.
But the South had an ample apology in the events of the last
few months. War, open war, had been proclaimed against
them, and arson and murder had been committed in their
streets. The murderer had been executed, but he had risen
from the dead a hero and a martyr, and his followers were

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 131

gathering strength and only awaiting the hour to renew the
invasion. These things were ample apology for the alarm and
indignation which pervade the South. But would they secede
now ? Would they break up the Union of these States, and
bring down forever, in one promiscuous ruin, the pillars and
columns of this magnificent temple of liberty which our fathers
reared? Wait a little. Let them try again the peaceful
remedy of the ballot-box, more potent than the bayonet. He
was not as hopeful of the final result as some ; but he was
taught in his infancy that he should never despair of the Re
public. He believed in an overruling Providence, and that
God had fore-ordained for this country a higher, mightier,
nobler destiny than for any other country since the world began.
Time's noblest empire was the last. From the North Pole to
the Isthmus of Darien, from the Atlantic ocean to the Alle-
ghanies, stretching over the vast basin of the Mississippi,
scaling the Rocky Mountains, and lost at last in the blue waters
of the Pacific, he beheld the future of this country in patriotic
vision, one Union, one Constitution, one destiny. [Applause.]
But this magnificent destiny could only be achieved by us as a
united people."

This speech, the first of any length delivered by Mr. Val-
landigham, was highly applauded.

We present two short extracts from papers published at the
time : —

From the Journal of Commerce : —

" Mr. Yallandigham, of Ohio, who is a fine speaker as well
as a sound thinker, made a capital Union speech to-day against
sectionalism and ultraism on both sides. He declares one
thing in which every Western man concurs, to wit : that the
great West will never allow a dissolution of the Union."

From the Washington Star : —

" Mr. Yallandigham delivered a national speech in the House
hall this morning, which won him great oratorical reputation,
and was in itself a key to the remarkable opposition manifested

132 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM.

by the Republican party members yesterday to his effort to
address the body. That is to say, they had no fancy to permit
a gentleman to speak who would surely place them much more
clearly on the defensive than before. We take it for granted
that no Speaker will be elected until the best reply that can
possibly be made to Mr. V.'s speech shall have been made."

After angry discussions, exciting scenes, and frequent bal-
lottings from day to day, continued through the months of
December and January, at length, on the 1st day of February,
a Speaker was elected, the Hon. Wm. Pennington, of New
Jersey, a moderate Republican, and one who was not an in-
dorser of Helper's book.

About this time, complaint was made to Mr. Yallandigham
by the editor of a religious and political paper published in his
district, that its circulation in the South was obstructed by the
unlawful action of certain Southern postmasters. The paper
in question was an Abolition sheet, and these postmasters, re
garding it as incendiary and mischievous, had taken the
responsibility in some cases of withholding it from subscribers,
or even of destroying it. Mr. Yallandigham was no friend to
the paper, to its spirit or purpose; but he was in favor of
free speech, a free press, and the free and unobstructed circula
tion of newspapers. He promptly interposed, and through his
influence the grievance was redressed. Yet the very men who
had invoked his aid and commended his course in securing a
free transmission through the mails of this paper — a paper of
the kind which the people of the South regarded as not only
insulting but dangerous — these men in less than two years
were clamorous for the suppression of the Democratic press
throughout the land, and eager to silence the voice of all who
dared to differ irom them as to the measures best calculated to
promote the peace and harmony and prosperity of the country.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 133

In February, Mr. "Vallandigham delivered a brief eulogy
upon the occasion of the death of Mr. Goode, of Virginia ; and
in March spoke at length against the " hour-rule," denouncing
it as a chief source of evil in legislation and parliamentary pro
ceeding. He offered an amendment: "That the limitation
of debate to one hour shall apply only to speeches read by
members in the House or Committee." He would have pre
ferred to have the rule abrogated altogether, but believing that
this could not be accomplished, he thought that by adopting the
amendment the evil would be mitigated. It was an evil, and
had been wherever it had obtained. At Athens, in her legis
lative assembly there was no limit to public debate, and hence
those splendid remains of Grecian eloquence which challenged
the admiration of the world to this day. But 'in the judicial
courts of Athens the rule did prevail, and forensic eloquence
attained but small importance in Greece. Limitation upon
debate was not known in the Roman Senate, or at the Roman
bar in the earlier days of the Republic; but as she began
to fall into decay the "hour-rule" was applied in judicial
trials, and according to the testimony of her historians, from
that moment forensic eloquence perished. But to come down
to our own times, it was the testimony of men who had
long served in Congress, that since the adoption of the " hour-
rule," speeches had increased in quantity and deteriorated in
quality. The rule had been vehemently assailed by Mr.
Ben ton. Mr. Calhoun had denounced it as " destroying the
liberties of the people by gagging their Representatives ; " and
it had been opposed by John Quincy Adams, and by many
others of the oldest and ablest members of the House. He
would not disparage, as some were disposed to do, those care-

134 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM.

fully prepared and elegantly written lectures which often
wearied the patience of the House ; but these essays or lectures
were not delivered in the proper place : they belonged to the
lyceum and not to legislation. He longed to see restored
to the House legitimate debate — that interesting and exciting
debate so highly dramatic in character, now heard only in the
Senate of the United States or in the Parliament of Great
Britain, but which since the adoption of the " hour-rule " had
almost wholly disappeared from the Representative Chamber,
and lingered only in the memory or the records of the past.
He concluded thus :

" The discussion upon the Lecompton Constitution, in which
from one hundred and seventy to two hundred speeches were
delivered or read, occupied the time, if not the attention, of the
House from the 16th of December until the 30th of April.
And why is this ? Because we have no legitimate debate. The
speech of one member does not follow that of another. One set
of ideas or arguments is not provoked by another urged by the
speaker who preceded. We hear none and have none of that
kind of debate. Disconnected lectures, written weeks before,
and concealed in the desks of members, are continually produced
here and read to empty benches, and yet go forth to the country
as speeches which thrill the hearts of members and those who
throng our galleries.

"Sir, I remember, as an illustration this moment occurring to
me, that a member from Illinois read an essay upon this floor
in the month of February one year ago, late at night, to three
members and five pages [laughter], and yet the next day it was
telegraphed to a leading paper in the city of New York as one
of the most thrilling speeches ever delivered in the House,
remarkable especially for its fearlessness and the boldness of
its denunciation [renewed laughter], and perfectly electrifying
every one present. Now, is it not time that this evil was
remedied ? I repeat again, that the quantum of speaking will
not be increased by the abrogation of the hour-rule ; the num
ber of pages which make up your Congressional Globe will not

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 135

be multiplied ; and what difference is it to us or to the country
whether one man shall speak for two hours or two men speak
for one hour each ? It may be of some moment to our particu
lar constituencies, but it is none to the whole country. Let
gentlemen who would discuss mere partisan or local topics, go
back to the ancient usage, which prevailed some forty years ago,
of publishing addresses upon such questions to their constituents.
Let us agree henceforth that what is said upon the floor here shall
relate to the great measures of public policy and legislation which
may come before us, and not to mere fleeting and temporary sub
jects of controversy between parties. No reform which we can
devise will tend so far to bring the House back to its ancient
dignity and decorum, and to that high repute which belonged
to it in the earlier days of the Republic.

" I desire to call the attention of the committee to the fact
that for thirty years after the organization of this Government
the Senate was not the centre of attraction. It was the House
upon which the eyes of the country were turned. It was here,
Sir, that in those days there were gathered an Ames, a Madison,
an Ellsworth, a Randolph, a Sherman, and others of a like fame
Avho have made the history of our country illustrious. But for
thirty years now, and especially within the twenty years past,
since the adoption of the hour-rule, along with other evils, the
importance and even the equality of the House has been lost,
and it is the Senate whose galleries the people throng now ; it is
the Senate that has drawn upon itself the chief attention of the
country ; it is the debates in the Senate for which the public look ;
it is the speeches delivered in the Senate which circulate
throughout the land; and, finally, it is the Senate, as the gentle
man from Virginia [Mr. Garnett] suggested, which is not only
absorbing all the legislation of the country, but is moulding
that public opinion which controls the Government. Is it not
apparent then, I ask, that there should be found, and right
speedily, a remedy for the disrepute into which this House has
iallen ? What that remedy may be I leave to your wisdom,
gentlemen, to devise ; but I repeat that the abrogation of the
' hour-rule 9 is, in my opinion, the first and a most important
step in that direction.

" Mr. Cox. — I wish to ask my colleague a single question.
He seems to have taken the British House of Commons as his
model of a parliamentary body.

136 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Mr. VaUandigham. — Not altogether, although this House
was certainly modeled after it.

"Mr. Cox. — My colleague has, no doubt, read in Ten
Thousand a Year of one Tittlebat Titmouse, who broke down a
ministry by crowing at an inopportune time. [Laughter.] I
suppose that, to carry out the system in this House, it should
be the duty of the Speaker to appoint persons who are to per
form that duty. But, as my colleague refers to classic authori
ties, I ask him whether it was not true that the ' hour-rule J
always prevailed in the Roman Senate ?

" Mr. VaUandigham. — Certainly not.

" Mr. Cox. — I ask if it was not extraordinary that those
great declamations of Demosthenes and JEschines always came
out in exactly sixty minutes ?

" Mr. VaUandigham. — My colleague is, as Titmouse would
say, a most ' respectable gent;' and no doubt the incident to
which he has referred in that gentleman's parliamentary career,
illustrating his powers of crowing, was called to mind by the
similarity between my colleague's name [Mr. Cox] and the
barn-yard fowl called

4 Chanticleer who wakes the morn.'

He is the very bird for the new office he proposes. [Laughter.]
But I regret that he has exhibited such lamentable forgetful-
ness, at least, in regard to the Roman and Grecian eloquence
to which I had made allusion by way of illustration. If he
had recently read the speeches of Demosthenes and JEschines
to which he refers, he would not have asked whether they were
not spoken in sixty minutes. Certainly they cannot now be
read in two hours, and that without including the documents
quoted by the orators.

" Mr. Cox. — That depends upon whether they are read in
the original. [Laughter.]

"Mr. VaUandigham. — I do not profess to be as familiar
with Greece as my colleague. He has seen the ' isles of Greece/
visited the classic shores of Attica, walked the streets of
Athens, and stood upon the Acropolis. I have not. He
visited Rome, too ; though I may not speak of what he saw or
heard in the Eternal City; he has written it in a book.
[Laughter.] But I will not occupy the time of the committee

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 137

longer. By reason of the very evil of interruptions of which
I complained, I have been forced to speak at far greater length
than I intended. I beg pardon, gentlemen."

About the same time he spoke in support of a bill he had
offered to provide for the better arming of the militia of the
States. It was a subject to which he had always devoted much
attention, having while a student of law held the position of
Division-Inspector in his native county, with the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1857, upon the reorganization of the
volunteer militia of Ohio, he had been chosen a Brigadier-
General, and had spent no small amount of money and time to
bring his command into good condition and discipline. He
now labored earnestly, at this and the succeeding session, to
procure arms from the Federal Government, though without
success.

In April, 1860, as Secretary of the National Democratic
Committee, he attended the Presidential Convention at
Charleston, S. C. Though never an indorser of Mr. Douglass's
peculiar views in reference to " Squatter Sovereignty/7 or the
power of the inhabitants of a Territory over the institution
of Slavery, yet for personal reasons, and because he^believed him
to be the fittest man to meet the impending crisis, he sincerely
supported that gentleman for the nomination. At the same
time he saw with anxiety and alarm that the unwise counsels
and ill-advised measures of some of Mr. Douglass's friends
were about to be used by his extreme Southern opponents to
break up the Convention, and did not hesitate to speak his
mind freely. Foreseeing in this, as in so much else, the ap
proaching storm of civil war, he earnestly labored to avert the
mischief. Men over-zealous in support of their favorite, took

138 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

occasion to question his sincerity. This coming to the notice
of Mr. Douglass, he replied in a letter to a friend, declaring that
he never had a moment's doubt of Mr. Yallandigham's honor
and fidelity; adding, "Whenever I know a man to be a gen
tleman, I always regard his word as conclusive."

It was during this Convention that the following incident
occurred, as related by one of the editors of the Charleston
(S.C.) Courier:—

"On one occasion when Mr. Yallandigham, Mr. John A.
Logan of Illinois, Mr. Larrabee of Wisconsin, and others were
present, the conversation turned upon the threatening attitude
of the questions before the convention. Mr. Vallandigham
rose at the dinner-table with an air of great gravity, and
said : — ' Gentlemen, if the Democratic party is disrupted in
this Charleston Convention, the result will be the disruption
of the Union, and one of the bloodiest civil wars on record,
the magnitude of which no one can estimate. In the unity
of the Democratic party, and in the Union, lies the hope of
the South and of Republican government/ Mr. Logan re
plied : — f Sit down, Yallandigham, and drink your wine ; you
are always prophesying.' Mr. Yallandigham rejoined : — ' Gen
tlemen, I speak earnestly, because I feel deeply impressed with
the truth of what I have uttered.' "

It is manifest that about this time Mr. Yallandigham was
very apprehensive of a dissolution of the Union. In a letter
to his brother James, dated Washington, D.C., May 16, I860,
he says : —

" As to our political future I am utterly in the dark.

Providence can save us yet, but nothing else I am not

troubled so far about my own district — as the Democratic
party there will be united on me, and I shall receive also many
votes from the ' Union Party/ no doubt. But I shall be con
tent whatever betides, for I know that I am in the hands of
Him who doeth all things well. Resignation to His will is

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 139

one of the highest evidences of piety and first duties of a
Christian, for it is written that godliness with contentment is
great gain. So that, though I expect to be re-elected, yet
should it. turn out otherwise, I will return to my profession
without a murmur, and with renewed energy — unless, indeed,
that dire and impending calamity, a disruption of the Uniorij
should occur. In that event, which God in His mercy avert,
I shall have much to do in the scenes which must follow."

On the 19th of May Mr. Vallandigham returned home on
a brief visit from Washington, and addressed the people in
front of the court-house. The following are extracts from the
speech : —

"He was not for the North, nor for the South, but for the
whole country ; and yet in a conflict of sectional interests he
was for THE WEST all the time. In a little while, even after
the present year, men east of the mountains would learn that
there was a West, -which to them has heretofore been an ' un
discovered country.' He hoped fervently to see the day when
we should hear no more of sections; but as long as men else
where demanded a * united North/ and a ' united South/ he
wanted to see a ' united West/ Still the 'United States'
was a better term, more patriotic, more constitutional, and more
glorious than any of them."

Referring to Mr. Lincoln's " irrepressible conflict " speech

of 1858 —

" Mr. Vallandigham proceeded for some time to denounce
the sentiment of the speech in a vehement and impassioned
manner, as revolutionary, disorganising, subversive of the
Government, and ending necessarily in disunion. Our fathers
had founded a government expressly upon the compatibility
and harmony of a union of States ' part slave and part free/
and whoever affirmed the contrary, laid the axe at the very
root of the Union."

And in a later speech at the same place he said : —

" Kill the Northern and Western anti-slavery organization

140 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

(the Kepublican party), and the extreme Southern pro-slavery
* fire-eating ' organization of the Cotton States (its offspring)
will expire in three months. Continue the Republican party
— above all, put it in power, and the antagonism will grow
till the whole South will become a unit."

On the first of August he addressed a very large Demo
cratic meeting at Detroit, Michigan. In the course of the
speech he said : —

"For twenty years the country has been agitated by this
subject of slavery. Men of the North and West have been
taught to hate the men of the South, and Southerners have
been taught to hate the men of the North and West. This
Northern sectionalism and fanaticism has been approaching
nearer and nearer to Mason and Dixon's line, while the
Southern fanaticism, starting in the Cotton States, has been
creeping northwardly, until the two factions have nearly met.
What will be the inevitable result of the conflict that must
ensue? They must meet if the floods of fanaticism be not
checked. When they meet on the plains of Southern Illinois,
Indiana and Ohio, how long in God's name can the country
endure ? Human nature has been misread from the time of
Cain to this day, if bloody blood, human blood is not the result.
But, thank God, between the two sections there is a band of
national men, patriots, who love their country more than sec
tionalism, ready to stay this conflict. Our mission is to drive
this sectionalism . of the North back to Canada, whence it
sprung ; and that of the South back to the Gulf of Mexico."

It was upon this occasion that he first crossed the river to
Windsor, little imagining that in three years it was to be his
place of sojourn while in exile for the exercise of his constitu
tional rights as a citizen. He foresaw the civil war, but not
the immediate overthrow of personal and political liberty.

Mr. Douglass having been nominated by the main body of
the adjourned convention at Baltimore, Mr. Vallandigham
supported him earnestly throughout the canvass. He was'

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 141

himself for the fifth time the Democratic candidate in his
district for Representative in Congress, and again without the
formality of a convention. Though not quite the most bitter,
it was the most difficult and delicate of all his canvasses, in
asmuch as the opponents of the Republican party were divided
into three sections, supporting respectively 'Bell, Breckenridge,
and Douglass. Yet he was returned by a majority nearly the
same as in 1858. Shortly afterwards he went to New York
and New Jersey to speak in behalf of the " Union Ticket " in
those States ; and it was at the great meeting of November 2d,
at the " Cooper Institute," that he made the declaration that
" he never would, as a Representative in the Congress of the
United States, vote one dollar of money whereby one drop of .
American blood should be shed in a civil war." Late in the
afternoon of the day of the election he reached home and gave
his vote, remarking to a friend that "he feared it was the
last which any one would give for a President of the United
States."

On the 10th of November, four days after the Presidential
election, he published a card in the Cincinnati Enquirer, in
reply to an attack by a Republican paper. The following is
an extract : —

"And now let me add that I did say, not in Washington nor
at a dinner-table, not in the presence of ' fire-eaters, ' but in the
city of New York, in public assembly of Northern men, and in a
public speech at the Cooper Institute, on the 2d of November,
1860, that ' if any one or more of the States of this Union should
at any time secede for reasons of the sufficiency and justice of
which, before God and the great tribunal of history, they alone
may j udge, much as I should deplore it, I never would as a Repre
sentative in the Congress of the United States vote one dollar of
money whereby one drop of American blood should be shed in a civil

142

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

war. That sentiment, thus uttered in the presence of thousands
of the merchants and solid men of the free and patriotic city of
New York, was received with vehement and long-continued ap
plause, the entire vast assemblage rising as one man and cheering
for some minutes. And I now deliberately repeat and reaffirm
it, resolved, though I stand alone, though all others yield and
fall away, to make it good to the last moment of my public life.
No menace, no public clamor, no taunts, no sneers nor foul de
traction from any quarter shall drive me from my firm purpose.
Ours is a government of opinion, not offeree — a Union offr.ee
will, not arms; and coercion is civil war — a war of sections, a
war of States, waged by a race compounded and made up of all
other races, full of intellect, of courage, of will unconquerable,
and when set on fire by passion, the most belligerent and most
ferocious on the globe — a civil war full of horrors which no
imagination can conceive and no pen portray. If Abraham Lin
coln is wise, looking truth and danger full in the face, he will
take counsel of the ' old men/ the moderates of his .party, and
advise peace, negotiation, concession ; but if, like the foolish son
of the wise king, he reject these wholesome counsels, and hearken
only to the madmen who threaten chastisement with scorpions,
let him see to it lest it be recorded at last that none remained to
serve him ( save the house of Judah only.' At least if he will
forget the secession of the Ten Tribes, will he not remember and
learn a lesson of wisdom from the secession of the Thirteen
Colonies?"

The Presidential election of 1860 resulted in the choice of
Abraham Lincoln, and the whole South was forthwith stirred
with the most violent excitement. Secession of some, if not all ,
of the Southern States became imminent.

Congress met in second session on the 3d of December.
To the Democrats of the Free States it was a time of darkness
and discouragement. For years they had been predicting that
these troubles would come unless the slavery agitation should
cease ; but their predictions were disregarded, and they themselves
were derisively denounced as "Union-shriekers," as "Union-
savers." They sincerely loved the Union, and had struggled

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 143

hard • — many of them making sacrifices of personal feeling on
the subject of slavery, and of their political prospects, in
order to maintain the bonds of brotherhood between the North
and the South. But now it seemed their labor was fruitless ; the
Union was about to be dissolved, and they were filled with
sadness and gloom. This was especially the case with Mr.
Yallandigham. He was a man of deep feeling, of intense
earnestness, and could not but be powerfully moved by the dis
turbed and threatening condition of the country. The Southern
men too were deeply aifected. They had made up their minds
to depart, but they looked upon it as a constrained departure.
They had loved the Union — a Union formed by the wisdom
and cemented by the blood of their fathers, who in the council-
chamber and the field had, with their brethren of the North,
diligently labored amid trials and discouragements till this
fair fabric of government stood in strength and beauty before
them. How could they look with indifference upon its disso
lution ?

On the other hand, the Republicans were comparatively
calm and cheerful. They had elected their President, and they
would, before long, accomplish the great object of their desire,
the abolition of Slavery. They did not believe that there
was any danger of a dissolution of the Union ; and even if
it should take place, better that than the perpetuation of
Slavery. This wTas the feeling of a large proportion of the
Republican party. No Union with slaveholders was their cry,
and the removal of Slavery or a dissolution of the Union was
what they desired, and would have ultimately demanded —
imperatively demanded.

Mr. Vallandigham now felt sure that a secession of several

144 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of the States would take place, and though not without fear
that the dissolution might be perpetual, he still hoped for res
toration. That he indulged very gloomy apprehensions in re
ference to the future of the country is manifest from a letter to
his wife, dated —

"WASHINGTON CITY, Dec. 3, 1860.

" I have just witnessed the assembling of the last Congress
of the United States at its last session. It was a solemn scene,
though not appreciated as it will be viewed by posterity. Most
of the Republicans looked upon it as the beasts look upon the
starry heavens — ' with brute unconscious gaze/ All Southern
men and the Democrats from the Free States sat with hearts
full of gloom. The South Carolina members — almost out of
the Union, and here now for a few days, to part forever it may
be — seemed full of sorrow, yet accepting their destiny as one
who leaves his father's house never to return. At twelve
o'clock the gavel of the Speaker silenced every hum and a
stifling silence followed, during which the Chaplain, Mr. Stock
ton, with hair all white, made a solemn and impressive prayer ;
then followed the calling of the roll and the swearing in of a
few new members. In the midst of all the solemnity of the

occasion, moved to take up the Homestead Bill !

Poor fellow! he knew no better. But the House preferred
to adjourn, after quietly going through the farce of drawing for
seats.

" And thus has ended the 3d day of December, i860 ! It
has passed into history as did the melancholy sixth of Novem
ber — dies irae — the antithesis of the 4th of July — a day of
tribulation and anguish — the saddest day I ever passed. They
who some centuries hence shall read the history of these times,
will be amazed at the folly and blindness of us who live and
act now ; but they will be as blind and as foolish in the things
of their own day and generation.

" When the secession has taken place, I shall do all in my
power first to restore the Union, if it be possible ; and failing
in that, then to mitigate the evils of disruption.

" Well in body, but with a mind oppressed with the magni
tude of impending events, full of evil through all coming time,
I am/' &c.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 145

On the 4th of December, a member from Virginia moved
that a committee of thirty-three, one from each State, be ap
pointed to consider and report upon the perilous condition of
the country. Mr. Yallandigham voted for the motion, be
cause, as he remarked, it was an expedient, and though totally
inadequate, he was willing to support any and every expedient,
trusting that something might be yet done to avert the im
pending dangers. Mr. Hawkins, of Florida, being named one
of the committee, moved to be excused. A debate followed,
and Mr, Vallandigham spoke briefly but earnestly in protest
against the composition of the committee, criticising it also
as too numerous, and therefore discordant and slow, and
asking what kind of conciliation and compromise that was
which began by forcing a member to serve upon a committee
raised for the very purpose of peace ? He spoke also earnestly
in defence of the Northwest. The following are extracts : —

" But I repeat, Sir, there is not upon your committee one
solitary Representative east of the Rocky Mountains, of that
mighty host, numbering one million six hundred thousand
men, which for so many years has stood as a vast breakwater
against the winds and waves of sectionalism, and upon whose
constituent elements at least this country must still so much
depend in the great events which are thronging thick upon us,
for all hope of preservation now or of restoration hereafter.
Sir, is any man here insane enough to imagine for a moment
that this great Northern and Western Democracy, constituting
an essential part, and by far the most numerous part, of that
great Democratic party which for a half a century moulded the
policy and controlled the destinies of this Republic ; that party
which gave to the country some of the brightest jewels of
which she boasts ; that party which placed upon your statute-
books every important measure of enduring legislation from
the beginning of the Government to this day — that such a
section of such a party is to be thus utterly ignored, insulted,

10

146 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and thrust aside as of no value ? I tell you, you mistake the
character of the men you have to deal with. We are in a
minority indeed, to-day, at the ballot-box ; and we bow quietly
now to the popular will thus expressed. We are defeated, but
not conquered ; and he is a fool in the wisdom of this world
who thinks that in the midst of the stirring and revolutionary
tunes which are upon us, these sixteen hundred thousand men,
born free and now the equals of their brethren — men whose
every pulse throbs with the spirit of liberty — will tamely
submit to be degraded to inferiority and reduced to political
servitude. Never, never while there is but one man left to
strike a blow at the oppressor.

" Sir, we love this Union ; and more than that, we obey the
Constitution. We are here a gallant little band of less than
thirty men, but representing more than a million and a half of
freemen. We are here to maintain the Constitution, which
makes the Union, and to exact and yield that equality of rights
which makes the Constitution worth maintaining. We are
ready to do all and to suffer all in the cause of our — thank
God ! — yet common country; and by no vote or speech or act
of ours, here or elsewhere, shall anything be done to defile, or
impair, or to overthrow this the grandest temple of human
liberty ever erected in any age. But we demand to worship at
the very foot of the altar ; and not, as servants or inferiors, in
the outer courts of the edifice.

" Sir, ice of the Northwest have a deeper interest in the pre
servation of this Government in its present form than any other
section of the Union. Hemmed in, isolated, cut off from the
seaboard upon every side: a thousand miles and more from
the mouth of the Mississippi, the free navigation of which under
the law of nations we demand, and will have at every cost;
with nothing else but our great inland seas, the lakes — and
their outlet, too, through a foreign country — what is to be our
destiny ? Sir, we have fifteen hundred miles of southern fron
tier, and but a little narrow strip of eighty miles or less from
Virginia to Lake Erie bounding us upon the east. Ohio is the
isthmus that connects the South with the British Possessions,
and the East with the West. The Rocky Mountains separate
us from the Pacific. Where is to be our outlet ? What are we
to do when you shall have broken up and destroyed this Gov
ernment? We are seven States now, with fourteen Senators

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 147

and fifty-one Kepresentatives, and a population of nine millions.
We have an empire equal in area to the third of all Europe,
and ice do not mean to be a dependency or province either of the
East or of the South ; nor yet an interior or second-rate power
upon this continent ; and if we cannot secure a maritime bound
ary upon other terms, we will cleave our way to the sea-coast
with the sword. A nation of warriors we may be; a tribe of
shepherds never."

He closed with a solemn warning that the time was short
and the danger imminent, and that standing in the forum of
history, acting in the eye of posterity, all duties should be dis
charged instantly and aright, if we would be —

•

" Medicined to that sweet sleep
Which yesterday we owed."

The House refused to excuse Mr. Hawkins ; but he did not
serve. It was in this debate that Mr. Sickles repeated sub
stantially Mr. Vallandigham's declaration against supporting a
civil war, pledging that no man should ever pass through the
city of New York to coerce a seceded State, and threatening
that that city would assert her own independence. Mr.
Sickles said : —

" The country has been fatally deceived, and some of these
illusions possess us even now. One of them is that this Union
can be preserved by force. . . . Yet when the call for force
romes — let it come whence it may — no man will ever pass
the boundaries of the city of New York for the purpose of
waging war against any State of this Union which, through its
constituted authorities and sustained by the voice of its people,
solemnly declares that its rights, its interests, and its honor de
mand that it should seek safety in a separate existence. ... I
simply mean to discharge my duty in endeavoring to contri
bute something towards dispelling the hallucination that exist*
in many places — yes, Sir, in distinguished places — that the
Union is to be preserved by armies. Sir, the Union can be
made perpetual by justice, but it cannot be maintained an in
stant by force/'

148 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Such were the sentiments of the Hon. Daniel Sickles,
uttered on the floor of Congress on the 10th of December, 1860.
He recanted and became a Major-General : Mr. Vallandigham
made his declaration good, and was driven into exile. But in
proud conscientiousness he could exclaim in Congress, after
two years of desolating and disastrous war, "To-day I bless
God that not the smell of so much as one drop of its blood is
upon my garments."

About the middle of December a large meeting of Senators
and representatives from the fourteen Free and Slave States
on each side of the border was held for mutual consultation as
to their interests in the Union, and to devise, if possible, some
plan by which the differences between the two sections might be
settled. The number present was about seventy-five. Senator
Crittenden presided, and Mr. Colfax of Indiana, and Mr.
Barrett of Missouri, were appointed secretaries.

A number of propositions were submitted to the meeting.

Mr. Vallandigham proposed the Crittenden resolutions.
After considerable discussion, the several propositions sub
mitted were referred to a committee of fourteen, one from
each State represented, who were directed to report to a future
meeting, to be called by them as soon as they should agree
upon a basis of settlement.

About this time a number of prominent gentlemen, prin
cipally of the Border States, believing that a disruption of the
Union was inevitable, conceived the idea of a " Central Con
federacy," to be composed of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela
ware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Caro
lina, and Missouri, together with the Northwest. They con
sulted Mr. Yallandigham. His reply was that it would make

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 149

a " noble Republic," but he would favor no scheme of division
whatever so long as there was any " hope of saving the
present Union."

On the 20th of December, Senator Pugh of Ohio spoke
against coercion in a powerful and eloquent speech ; and at a
serenade given in his honor on the evening of the 22d, Mr.
Vallandigham was called out. We give a brief extract from
his speech :—

" To-night you are here to endorse the great policy of con
ciliation, not force ; peace, not civil war. The desire nearest
the heart of every patriot in this crisis is the preservation of
the Union of these States as our fathers made it. [Applause.]
But the Union can be preserved only by maintaining the Con
stitution, and the constitutional rights, and above all, the per
fect equality of every State and every section of this confede
racy. [Cheers.] That Constitution was made in peace ; it has,
for now more than seventy years, been preserved by the policy
of peace at home, and it can alone be maintained for our chil
dren, and their children after them, by that same peace policy.

" We mean to stand by it. Public sentiment may, indeed,
at first be against us the tide may run heavily the other way
for a little while ; but thank God, we all have nerve enough,
and will enough, and faith enough in the people to know that
at last it will turn for peace ; and though we may be prostrated
for a time by the storm, yet upon the gravestone of every pat
riot who shall die now in the cause of peace and humanity and
the country, shall be written 'Resurgam ' — I shall rise again.
And it will be a glorious resurrection. [Loud and continued
applause.]

" Fellow-citizens, I am all over and altogether a Union man.
I would preserve it in all its integrity and worth. But I re
peat that this cannot be done by coercion — by the sword."

Some time in this month Mr. Vallandigham visited Rich
mond, Virginia, invited to that city for the purpose of deliver
ing a lecture before the Young Men's Christian Association.

150 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

The following notice of his visit and lecture we take from the
Richmond Enquirer: —

" THE HON. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, OF OHIO. — This dis
tinguished Representative from the State of Ohio, visited Rich
mond in compliance with an invitation to lecture before the
Yon^g Men's Christian Association. The lecture was attended
by the largest audience that has ever assembled at these lectures
in Richmond ; a well-deserved compliment to the ability and
constitutional conservatism that has always characterised the
public life of Mr. Vallandigham. The President of the As
sociation, in introducing Mr. Vallandigham, alluded to him as
'a patriotic and eloquent son of a Virginia sire/ to which Mr.
V. responded in substance as follows : —

" t Virginians : — I thank the President of your Association
for his kindly allusion, and I thank you all for the cordial
manner in which the papers of your capital have spoken of me
this morning. I am, indeed, the representative in Congress of
a State, the dominant party of which has unhappily given but
too just cause for distrust and alarm to Virginia ; yet that State
is the first-born daughter of your Commonwealth, and I beg to
assure you that it is not they among us of Virginia blood who
have ever sought to wound or to harm their honored mother.
Here in your midst I am myself at home, having an inherit
ance in this the Ancient Dominion by a title of a hundred
and sixty years' descent, and cherishing towards her still the
fondest feelings of filial affection, mellowed and subdued now
to the love which one feels towards the mother of her who
bore him. " The parted bosom clings to wonted home," and I
trust the day is far distant when Virginia shall shut her doors
against her exiled children, or their descendants of her own
kindred and blood/

" The lecture was one of great ability and eloquence, and
was received by the audience with evident satisfaction. There
is no man in the Congress of the United States who has at all
times and under all circumstances maintained the rights and
interests of his own section with such full justice to all the rights
of the South, as Mr. Vallandigham"

On the 24th of December he wrote thus to his wife : —

" . . . . To-morrow will be Christinas day, and I am home-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 151

sick, and heart-sick too. I see 110 hope even of peace, much
less of adjustment of difficulties. Every day proves still more
clearly that it is the fixed purpose of the Republican party not
only to refuse all compromise, but to force a civil war. This
sad calamity approaches nearer every day, and I see no way to
avert it here before the 4th of March, though I hope we in the
West shall escape it a little while longer. If we can only
delay hostilities till the public mind shall apprehend the reality
of the dangers which surround us, and what civil war means,
we, I am sure, could avert it. Pugh's was a great speech and
has done much good. Our ranche was serenaded Saturday
night handsomely, and all passed off well. You will see the

proceedings in the Star You say nothing about coming

on to Cumberland soon : I think you had better not come now.
It may be necessary in March or April for me to find you a
place of safety somewhere in the mountains. Keep this quiet,
but prepare your mind for it — though I still hope that it may
not be necessary. Be brave. I am very well, and we enjoy
ourselves here in our ranche mightily together, though very
quietly, in the midst of the storms outside. I have not heard
of a party, a reception, or a dinner yet ; there is no heart here
in any one for gayety. We spend our evenings together at
home, in public duties sometimes, sometimes in reviewing and
commenting upon the ancient and modern classics ; and thus
with a fine house, good table, and four clever fellows (Charlie
Martin is now with us) we are as ' happy a family * as the times
will admit. The concluding toast at dinner every day is ' to
our absent wives and children.' But we would gladly spend
one day a week at least at home.

"My love to all. Many kisses for Charlie. A happy
Christmas to you all.

" Most affectionately," &c.

Mr. Vallandigharn's opposition to the war was not factious,
as many persons supposed ; he sincerely believed that it would
end in a dissolution of the Union. In January, 1861, though
greatly troubled and discouraged at the condition of public
affairs, he cherished a hope that war might be averted. His
views and feelings on the subject are disclosed in a letter to his
wife, dated —

152 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" WASHINGTON CITY, January 27, 1861.

" .... I have counted up the time and find it now about
five weeks till I expect to be home. In the aggregate of a life
time it will pass but too quickly ; but it seems a long time now.
I dreamed of being at home this morning. I went into my
room, and just as I opened the door, my dear little boy wakened
and sprang into my arms, exclaiming ' Here's my dear blessed
papa ! ' and then I went down with you to the breakfast-table ;
and then the vision grew confused and dim, and I awoke
as the pilgrim awoke, ' and lo ! it was a dream/ I wish I was
at home. I am able to do no good here — no man can; so I sit,
and am obliged to sit, quiet and sorrowful, condemned as one
who watches over the couch of a loved mother slowly dying
with consumption, to see my country perish by inches, and
without the power to save. But one thing we have gained —
there will be no war now, I think ; peace for the present has
been secured, and I feel that I, even I, have done a great ser
vice to my country. Alone among public men of the Free States
I took my position early in November, amidst reproach and per
secution ; and even when we met here on the 3d of December,
no man stood by me except Pendleton and Pugh. We three
began the battle for peace; and now already Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois are with us through State conventions of the Democratic
party. Other States will soon follow, and in a little while the
whole people will demand peace, negotiation and the restoration
of the Union. Before God I believe that if Pugh and myself had
not placed ourselves in the breach, this country would have been
in the midst of a civil war to-day. I feel proudly happy at this
hour that I did something to prevent it. The great fight
which Pugh and I made in the Ohio caucus on the night of the
17th of December, 1860, saved us that calamity — at least up
to this point. God deliver us still in the future as He has in
the past."

On the 7th of February, 1861, Mr. Vallandigham intro
duced his proposed amendment to the Constitution, providing
for a division of the States into four sections for the purpose of
voting in the Senate and the Electoral College, and on the 20th
of February spoke at length in its support. The following are
extracts :—

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 153

" Born, Sir, upon the soil of the United States, attached to
my country from earliest boyhood ; loving and revering her,
with some part at least, of the spirit of Greek and Roman
patriotism ; between these two alternatives, with all my mind,
with all my heart, with all my strength of body and of soul,
living or dying, at home or in exile, I am for the Union which
made it what it is ; and therefore I am also for such terms of
peace and adjustment as will maintain that Union now and for
ever. This, then, is the question which to-day I propose to
discuss :

"How shall the Union of these States be restored and
preserved ?

" Devoted as I am to the Union, I have yet no eulogies to
pronounce upon it to-day. It needs none. Its highest eulogy
is the history of this country for the last seventy years. The
triumphs of war and the arts of peace, science, civilisation,
wealth, population, commerce, trade, manufactures, literature,
education, justice, tranquillity, security to life, to person, to
property, material happiness, common defence, national renown,
all that is im-plied in the blessings of liberty — these, and
more, have been its fruits from the beginning to this hour.
These have enshrined it in the hearts of the people; and, be
fore God, I believe they will restore and preserve it. And to
day they demand of us, embassadors and representatives, to tell
them how this great work is to be accomplished. . . .

" I shall vote also for the Crittenden propositions, as an
experiment, and only as an experiment, because they proceed
upon the same general idea which marks the Adams amend
ment; and whereas, for the sake of peace and the Union, the
latter would give a new security to slavery in the States, the
former, for the self-same great and paramount object of Union
and peace, proposes to give a new security also to slavery in the
Territories south of the latitude 36° 30'. If the Union is worth
the price which the gentleman from Massachusetts volunteers
to pay to maintain it, is it not richly worth the small addi
tional price which the Senator^ from Kentucky demands as the
possible condition of preserving it ? Sir, it is the old parable
of the Roman sibyl ; and to-morrow she will return with fewer
volumes, and it may be at a higher price.

" I shall vote to try the Crittenden propositions, because,
also, I believe that they are perhaps the least which even the

154 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

more moderate of the Slave States would under any' circum
stances be willing to accept; and because North, South, and
West the people seem to have taken hold of them and to demand
them of us, as an experiment at least. I am ready to try, also,
if need be, the propositions of the Border State Committee or of
the Peace Congress, or any other fair, honorable, and reasonable
terms of adjustment which may so much as promise even to
heal our present troubles and to restore the Union of these
States. Sir, I am ready and willing and anxious to try all
things and to do all things '' which may become a man/ to
secure that great object which is nearest to my heart.

"The question, therefore, is not merely what will keep Vir
ginia in the Union, but also what will bring Georgia back.
And here let me say that I do not doubt that there is a large
and powerful Union sentiment still surviving in all the States
which have seceded, South Carolina alone perhaps excepted ;
and that if the people of those States can be assured that they
shall have the power to protect themselves by their own action
within the Union, they will gladly return to it, very greatly pre
ferring protection within to security outside of it. Just now,
indeed, the fear of danger, and your persistent and obstinate
refusal to enable them to guard against it, have delivered the
people of those States over into the hands and under the con
trol of the real secessionists and disunionists among them ; but
give them security and the means of enforcing it ; above all,
dry up this pestilent fountain of slavery agitation as a political
element in both sections, and, my word for it, the ties of a com
mon ancestry, a common kindred, and common language ; the
bonds of a common interest, common danger, and common
safety ; the recollections of the past, and of associations not yet
dissolved, and the bright hopes of a future to all of us, more

§lorious and resplendent than any other country ever saw ; ay,
ir, and visions too of that old flag of the Union, and of the
music of the Union, and precious memories of the statesmen
and heroes of the dark days of the Eevolution, will fill their
souls yet again with yearnings and desires intense for the
glories, the honors, and the material benefits too of that
Union which their fathers and our fathers made ; and they will
return to it, not as the prodigal, but with songs and rejoicing,
as the Hebrews returned from the captivity to the ancient city
of their kings."

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 155

Referring to secession, Mr. V. said : —

"Sir, the experiment may readily be repeated. It will be
repeated. And is it not madness and folly, then, to call back,
by adjustment, the States which have seceded, or to hold back
the States which are threatening to secede, without providing
some safeguard against the renewal of this most simple and dis
astrous experiment ? Can foreign nations have any confidence
hereafter in the stability of a Government which may so readily,
speedily and quietly be dissolved ? Can we have any con
fidence among ourselves ? "

Quoting Jefferson's saying in 1820 that his only consolation
in view of disunion was that he would not live to weep over
it, Mr. Y. exclaimed : —

"Fortunate man! he did not live to weep over it. To
day he sleeps quietly beneath the soil of his own Monticello,
unconscious that the mighty fabric of Government which he
helped to rear — a Government whose foundations were laid by
the hands of so many patriots and sages, and cemented by the
blood of so many martyrs and heroes — hastens now, day by
day, to its fall. What recks he, or that other great man, his
compeer, fortunate in life and opportune alike in death, whose
dust they keep at Quincy, of those dreadful notes of prepara
tion in every State for civil strife and fraternal carnage ; or of
that martial array which already has changed this once peaceful
capital into a beleaguered city? Fortunate men! they died
while the Constitution yet survived, while the spirit of frater
nal affection still lived, and the love of true American liberty
lingered yet in the hearts of their descendants."

In answer to a gross telegraphic misrepresentation of this
proposition, Mr. Y. explained and defended it in a card to the
Cincinnati Enquirer, dated February 14, 1861, as follows : —

" My proposition looks solely to the restoration and mainten
ance of the Union forever, by suggesting a mode of voting in
the United States Senate and the Electoral Colleges, by which
the causes which have led to our present troubles may in the

156 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

future be guarded against without secession and disunion; and
also the agitation of the Slavery question as an element in our
national politics be forever hereafter arrested. My object — the
sole motive by which I have been guided from the beginning
of this most fatal revolution — is to MAINTAIN THE UNION,
and not destroy it. When all possible hope is gone, and the
Union irretrievably broken, then, but not till then, I will be
for a Western Confederacy."

As has been already intimated, these propositions were grossly
misrepresented. Mr. "Vallandigham had prepared in advance
an abstract of them for the telegraphic agent of the Associated
Press at the capital, who transmitted it correctly to the Eastern
papers ; but at Philadelphia the knavish agent of the Associ
ation telegraphed it to the Western press as a proposition to
divide the United States into four separate republics. Mr.
Vallandigham demanded a correction, but the perversion was
only repeated in a form still more false. This was but the
beginning of that persistent and aggravated misrepresentation
in every form, by telegraph as well as otherwise, to which for
years he was subjected. These propositions were amendments
only to the existing Constitution. They proposed sections
within the Union ; not distinct nationalities or republics outside
of it. The preamble itself recites, as the purpose of the pro
positions, that " it concerned the peace and stability of the
Federal Union and Government that a division of the States
into mere slaveholding and non-slaveholding sections — causing
hitherto, and from the nature and necessity of the case, in
flammatory and disastrous controversies upon the subject of
Slavery, ending already in present disruption of the Union —
should be forever hereafter ignored." So far as any suggestion
has ever been made respecting a possible future division of the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 157

American Republic " into four distinct nationalities/7 it came
from the pen of Lieutenant-General Scott, who even went so far
as to name the probable capitals of three of the nationalities.

At the time this speech was delivered, the voice of nearly
the whole country was decidedly for peace. At the opening of
the session Mr. Vallandigham had found himself almost alone
against " coercion/7 but in February the sentiment had greatly
changed both in Congress and out of it. Immediate danger of
civil war seemed to have passed by; yet satisfied that all
hope of present adjustment was at an end, and separation or
disunion an existing, though as he hoped a temporary fact, he
spoke chiefly in review of the more remote and hidden but real
causes which had led to the crisis, and from these sought to
deduce the true nature of the searching and decisive remedies
which he believed essential. But in the whirlwind of the
hour, neither the House nor the country was in a temper to
hear philosophy, and the speech attracted then no part of the
attention which it has since received. It was appropriately
entitled in the pamphlet edition published at the time, " The
Great American Revolution of 1861," — a revolution which he
pronounced "the grandest and the saddest of modern times."

On the 27th of February the House proceeded to vote on
the various compromise propositions before it. Mr. Kellogg,
of Illinois, had submitted a proposition similar to the Missouri
Compromise of 1820, but to be embodied in the Constitution.
It was rejected, yeas 33, nays 158. All the yeas were Demo
crats and Constitutional Union men, except Mr. Kellogg him
self. Mr. Vallandigham voted for the proposition.

The question then recurred on the "Crittenden Proposi
tions," offered in the House by Mr. Clemens, of Virginia. It

158 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

was these propositions which Mr. Davis and Mr. Toombs both
declared would be satisfactory to the South and avert secession.
They were rejected by a vote of yeas 80, nays 113, every
Democrat and Southern man, except Hindman, of Arkansas,
voting for them, and every Eepublican without one single
exception voting against them. Mr. Vallandigham voted for
them.

Of the eighty who voted for compromise, nineteen were
afterwards in either the Federal or the Confederate army ; while
of the one hundred and thirteen who voted against compro
mise, only six — one of them being Hindman, who became a
Confederate General. The other five were in the Federal
army. Had this compromise been adopted by Congress, seces
sion would not have taken place, the civil war would not
have occurred.

Mr. Yallandigham voted not only for the Crittenden Com
promise propositions, but for all others which, in his own lan
guage, " so much as promised even to heal our troubles and to
restore the Union of the States." But he voted also steadily,
in common with nearly the whole body of the Democratic and
Conservative members, against the Force Bill and all other
measures of coercion, believing that threats would avail nothing
to intimidate the seceded States, while justice and fair compro
mise would satisfy the vast majority of their people.

On the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaug
urated. His address declared the " Chicago Platform " a law
unto him ; but for some weeks the peace policy prevailed.
Fort Sumpter was to be evacuated. The country acquiesced.
The Republican press pronounced it wise — "a master-stroke
of policy." He himself said in the inaugural : — " Suppose you

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 159

go to war, you cannot fight always ; and when after much loss
on both sides and no gain on either you cease fighting, the iden
tical old questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon
you."

Mr. Vallandigham returned home in March, trusting that
peace at least might be for the present maintained. On the
15th of that month, Mr. Douglass, who during the early part of
the second session had inclined strongly towards coercion,
made his memorable speech* the most statesmanlike of his life,
declaring " War is disunion ; war is final, eternal separation."
But the necessities, if not the purposes of the Administration
and of the Republican party, required civil war, and they found
means to precipitate it. A fleet was sent to reinforce Fort
Surnpter. South Carolina fired on the fort and compelled its
surrender. The President issued his proclamation of the 15th
of April, calling out seventy-five thousand militia, and in a mo
ment the whole country was wrapped in the flames of the most
terrible civil war ever waged in any age or country.

Mr. Yallandigham did not hesitate for one moment to
maintain his position. It is scarcely possible to realise the
howl of denunciation which forthwith was raised against him,
or the ridiculous and preposterous reports — among others that
his house had been destroyed and that he himself had fled —
which were circulated. He noticed them in the following
card: —

"DAYTON, OHIO, Wednesday, April 17.
" To the Editor of the Enquirer:

" I have a word for the Republican press and partisans of
Cincinnati and other places abroad, who now daily falsify and
misrepresent me and matters which concern me here in Dayton.

160 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"My position in regard to this civil war, which the Lincoln
Administration has inaugurated, was long since taken, is well
known, and will be adhered to to the end. Let that be under
stood. I have added nothing to it, subtracted nothing from
it, said nothing about it publicly, since the war began. I know
well that I am right, and that in a little while ' the sober
second thought of the people ' will dissipate the present sudden
and fleeting public madness, and will demand to know why
thirty millions of people are butchering each other in civil Avar,
and will arrest it speedily. ... As to myself: no threats have
been made to me personally ; none within my hearing ; no vio
lence offered ; no mob anywhere ; none will be, nobody afraid
of any, and every statement or rumor in regard to me circu
lated orally, or published in the Republican press, is basely
idle and false. And now let me add, for the benefit of the
cowardly slanderers of Cincinnati or elsewhere who libel me
daily, that if they have any business with me, I can be found
every day at any time, either at home, on the north-west corner
of First and Ludlow, or upon the streets of Dayton.

" C. L. VALLAKDIGHAM."

Some days later he wrote two strictly private letters to a
gentleman in Cincinnati, who, having been arrested for treason
upon a judicial warrant a few months afterwards, was tried
before a United States Commissioner, the sole proof against
him being the production of these letters. He was acquitted.
The letters, very brief, contain not anything of note, except
that they suggest a/ear or apprehension (common to almost all
men before that time) that war being disunion, nothing re
mained but separation. But they do not express desire or wish,
or anything similar, for disunion. On the contrary, Mr. Val-
landigham distinctly says that "he would watch the first favor
able chance to move publicly for peace and restoration."

During the latter part of April and the months of May and
June, as also for many months afterwards, at Washington, in
his journeyings and at home, Mr. Vallandigham was exposed

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 161

day and night to imminent danger of personal harm or death.
Even his assassination was publicly invited by men holding
responsible official positions under the Administration. In his
own language, " he carried his life in the hollow of his hand."
His dauntless courage and the fact well known that he always

went thoroughly armed, no doubt in a measure protected him.

•

On the 3d of May the proclamation of the President call
ing out volunteers, and increasing the regular army and the
navy without Act of Congress, was issued. It was a bold and
most dangerous usurpation, which, if submitted to without re
monstrance, could end only in the final subversion of the Con
stitution in every part. Mr. Vallandigham immediately issued
a private circular, addressed to some twenty or more of the
most prominent Democratic politicians of the State, proposing
a conference at Chillicothe on the 15th of the month, to concert
measures to arouse the people to a sense of the danger which
was so imminent from the bold conspiracy to usurp all power
into the hands of the Executive, and thus to " rescue the Re
public from an impending military despotism." But four
answers were received ; three favorable, and one adverse to the
conference. It was not held.

On the 9th of May, Messrs. Richard H. Hendrickson, 1ST.
G. Oglesby, John McClellan, and others, his constituents, ad
dressed him a letter requesting his opinion on certain points
connected with the war. To this he replied on the 13th. He
first quoted from the speech of the Hon. Stephen A. Douglass
in the Senate of the United States, March 15, 1861 :—

" Sir, the history of the world does not fail to condemn the
folly, weakness, and wickedness of that Government which drew
its swond upon its own people when they demanded guarantees for

11

162 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

their rights. This cry, that we must have a Government, is
merely following the example of the besotted Bourbon, who
never learned anything by misfortune, never forgave an injury,
never forgot an affront. Must we demonstrate that we have
got a Government, and coerce obedience without reference to
the justice or injustice of the complaints? Sir, whenever ten
million people proclaim to you, with one unanimous voice, that
they apprehend their rights, their firesides, and their family
altars dre in danger, it becomes a wise Government to listen to
the appeal and to remove the apprehension. History does not
record an example wJiere any human Government has been strong
enough to crush ten millions of people into subjection when they
believed their rights and liberties were imperilkd, without first con
verting the Government itself into a despotism, and destroying the
last vestige of freedom."

Having quoted the above and several other paragraphs from
that speech, he says : —

"Those wrere the sentiments of the Democratic party, of the
Constitutional Union Party, and of a large majority of the Ee-
publicaii presses and party, only six weeks ago. They were
mine : I voted them repeatedly along with every Democrat and
Union man in the House. I have seen nothing to change,
much to confirm them since ; especially in the secession, within
the last thirty days, of Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina,
and Tennessee, taking with them four millions and a half of
people, immense wealth, inexhaustible resources, five hundred
thousand fighting men, and the grave of Washington and of
JacJcson. I shall vote them again.

" Waiving the question of the doubtful legality of the fijrst
proclamation of April 15th, calling on the militia for ' three
months/ under the Act of 1795, I will yet vote to pay them,
because they had no motive but supposed duty and patriotism
to move them ; and, moreover, they will have rendered almost
the entire service required of them before Congress shall meet.
But the audacious usurpation of President Lincoln, for which
he deserves impeachment, in daring, against the very letter of
the Constitution, and without a shadow of law, to ( raise and
support armies/ and to ' provide and maintain a navy.' for
three or five years, by mere executive proclamation, I will not

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 163

vote to sustain or ratify — NEVER ! Millions for defence ; not
a dollar or a man for aggressive and offensive civil war. . . .
A public debt of hundreds of millions weighing us and our
posterity down for generations, we cannot escape. Fortunate
shall we be if we escape with our liberties. Indeed, it is no
longer so much a question of war with the South as whether we
ourselves are to have constitutions and a republican form of
government hereafter in the North and West.

"In brief: I am for the CONSTITUTION first, and at all
hazards ; for whatever can now be saved of the UNION next ;
and for PEACE always as essential to the preservation of either.
But whatever any one may think of the war, one thing at least
every lover of liberty ought to demand inexorably : that it shall
be carried on strictly subject to the Constitution.

"The peace policy was tried: it arrested secession, and
promised a restoration of the Union. The policy of war is
now upon trial : in twenty days it has driven four States and
four millions and a half of people out of the Union and into
the Confederacy of the South. In a little while longer it will
drive out, also, two or four more States, and two millions or
three millions of people. War may, indeed, be the policy of the
EAST ; but peace is a necessity to the WEST.

"I would have volunteered nothing, gentlemen, at this
time in regard to this civil war ; but as constituents, you had a
right to know my opinions and position ; and briefly, but most
frankly, you have them."

Such were his sentiments, his conception of the impending
dangers, and his convictions as to the final issue of the war
during the first month after tLe proclamation, and when, amid
the storm which swept over the whole land, scarcely ten men
in the country dared openly and publicly to confess that they
were of the «same opinion.

CHAPTER X.

THE THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

ON the 4th of July, 1861, the Thirty-Seventh Congress
met in first or extraordinary session. The Speaker delivered a
ferocious and bloodthirsty address, declaring that territorial
unity must be maintained though the " waters of the Missis
sippi should be crimsoned with human gore, and every foot of
American soil baptized in fire and blood." This atrocious
sentiment was received, according to the official report, with
" vociferous applause upon the floor and in the galleries, which
lasted for many minutes." Indeed, the entire scene reminded
one of some of the maddened spectacles exhibited by the
French National and Constituent Assemblies, rather than the
sitting of a Congress of sober and rational statesmen. One of
the first acts of the House was to resolve that nothing not re
lating to the war should be in order. War became a fixed
fact, and Mr. Vallandigham accepted it as such; and maintain
ing only his opinions and consistency of position in regard to
it, he confined his opposition to the usurpations of power,
illegal acts, and violations of the Constitution by the Executive.
It was the purpose of the Administration leaders to prevent all
debate, and there seemed to be a general disposition among the
members on both sides to acquiesce. But Mr. Vallandigham
was resolved to be heard. Accordingly, on the 10th of July,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 165

the House being in Committee of the "Whole, the subject under
consideration the State of the Union, Mr. Vallandigham ob
tained the floor, and commenced thus : —

"Mr. Chairman: — In the Constitution of the United
States, which the other day we swore to support, and by the
authority of which we are here assembled now, it is written :

" 'All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a
Congress of the United States/

" It is further written, also, that the Congress to which all
legislative powers granted are thus committed :

" ' Shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of
the press.'

" And it is yet further written, in protection of Senators
and Representatives in that freedom of debate here without
which there can be no liberty, that —

" ' For any speech or debate in either House they shall not
be questioned in any other place.'

" Holding up the shield of the Constitution, and standing
here in the place and with the manhood of a Representative
of the people, I propose to myself, to-day, the ancient freedom
of speech used within these walls, though with somewhat
more, I trust, of decency and discretion than have sometimes
been exhibited here. Sir, I do not propose to discuss the
direct question of this civil war in which we are engag&l. Its
present prosecution is a foregone conclusion; and a wise man
never wastes his strength on a fruitless enterprise. My posi
tion shall, at present, for the most part be indicated by my
votes, and by the resolutions and motions which I may submit.
But there are many questions incident to the war and to its
prosecution about which I have somewhat to say now."

Mr. Vallandigham continued at considerable length in
exposing and denouncing Executive usurpation in bold and
eloquent terms.

~No speech was ever delivered in the midst of greater
personal danger — not even Cicero's oration for Milo, or Cur-
ran's defence of Bond. The galleries and lobbies were filled

166 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

with an excited soldiery and infuriated partisans, threatening
assassination. A leading Administration paper in New York
had two days before declared that if an attempt was made to
speak for peace, the " aisles of the hall would run with blood."
Arbitrary arrests for opinion and speech had already been com
menced. Almost without sympathy upon his own side of the
House, and with a fierce, insolent, and overwhelming majority
upon the other, Mr.Vallandigham, calm and unawed, met every
peril, and spoke as firmly, solemnly and earnestly as under
ordinary circumstances. He closed as follows : —

" I have finished now, Mr. Chairman, what I proposed to
say at this time upon the message of the President. As to my
own position in regard to this most unhappy civil war, I have
only to say that I stand to-day just where I stood upon the 4th
of March last, where the whole Democratic party, and the
whole Constitutional Union party, and a vast majority, as I
believe, of the people of the United States, stood too. I am for
peace, speedy, immediate, honorable PEACE, with all its bless
ings. Others may have changed : I have not. I question not
their motives nor quarrel with their course. It is vain and
futile for them to question or quarrel with mine. My duty
shall be discharged, calmly, firmly, quietly, and regardless of
consequences. The approving voice of a conscience void of
offence, and the approving judgment which shall follow ' after
some time be past/ these, God help me, are my trust and my
support.

"Sir, I have spoken freely and fearlessly to-day, as became an
American Representative and an American citizen ; one firmly
resolved, come what may, not to lose his own constitutional
liberties, nor to surrender his own constitutional rights in the
vain effort to impose these rights and liberties upon ten mil
lions of unwilling people. I have spoken earnestly, too, but
yet not as one unmindful of the solemnity of the scenes which
surround us upon every side to-day. Sir, when the Congress
of the United States assembled here on the 3d of December,
1860, just seven months ago, the Senate was composed of sixty-
six Senators, representing the thirty-three States of the Union,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 167

and this House of two hundred and thirty-seven members —
every State being present. It was a grand and solemn spec
tacle ; the embassadors of three and thirty sovereignties and of
thirty-one millions of people, the mightiest republic on earth,
in general Congress assembled. In the Senate, too, and this
House, were some of the ablest and most distinguished states
men of the country : men whose names were familiar to the
whole country — some of them destined to pass into history.
The new wings of the Capitol had but just recently been fin
ished, in all their gorgeous magnificence ; and, except a hundred
marines at the navy-yard, not a soldier was within forty miles
of Washington.

" Sir, the Congress of the United States meets here again
to-day ; but how changed the scene ! Instead of thirty-four
States, twenty-three only, one less than the number forty years
ago, are here or in the other wing of the Capitol. Forty- six
Senators and one hundred and seventy Representatives con
stitute the Congress of the now United States. And of these,
eight Senators and twenty-four Representatives from four
States only, linger here yet as deputies from that great South
which from the beginning of the Government contributed so
much to mould its policy, to build up its greatness, and to con
trol its destinies. All the other States of that South are gone.
Twenty-two Senators and sixty-five Representatives no longer
answer to their names. The vacant seats are indeed still here,
and the escutcheons of their respective States look down now
solemnly and sadly from these vaulted ceilings. But the Vir
ginia of Washington and Henry and Madison, of Marshall and
Jefferson, of Randolph and Monroe, the birth-place of Clay, the
mother of States and of Presidents ; the Carolinas of Pinckney
and Surnter and Marion, of Calhoun and Macon ; and Tennessee,
the home and burial-place of Jackson ; and other States, too,
once most loyal and true, are no longer here. The voices and
footsteps of the great dead of the past two ages of the Republic,
linger still, it may be in echo, along the stately corridors of
this Capitol, but their descendants from nearly one-half of the
States of the Republic will meet with us no more within these
marble halls. But in the parks and lawns, and upon the broad
avenues of this spacious city, seventy thousand soldiers have
supplied their places ; and the morning drum-beat from a score
of encampments within sight of this beleaguered capital, give

168 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

melancholy warning to the representatives of the States and of
the people, that AMID ARMS LAWS ARE SILENT.

" Sir, some years hence, I would fain hope some months
hence, if I dare, the present generation will demand to know
the cause of all this ; and some ages hereafter the grand and
impartial tribunal of history will make solemn and diligent
inquest of the authors of this terrible revolution."

A very large number of copies of this speech was circulated
in various forms, North and South, and it was published also
in England and on the continent. The peroration has been
especially admired, but it fell upon hostile or unwilling ears.
His fit audience was to be gathered in the presence-chamber
of Time. But comparative freedom of speech, which other
wise might have perished, was made secure, at least within the
halls of Congress.

At the conclusion of his speech, in reply to a question by
Mr. Holman, of Indiana, in regard to supporting the Govern
ment, Mr. Yallandigham said he would answer in the words
of the following resolution, which he had prepared, and pro
posed to offer at a future time : —

" Resolved, That the Federal Government is the agent of the
people of the several States composing the Union ; that it con
sists of three distinct departments — the legislative, the execu
tive, and the judicial — each equally a part of the Government,
and equally entitled to the confidence and support of the States
and the people ; and that it is the duty of every patriot to
sustain the several departments of the Government in the
exercise of all the constitutional powers of each which may be
necessary and proper for the preservation of the Government in
its principles and in its vigor and integrity, and to stand by
and defend to the utmost the flag which represents the Govern
ment, the Union, and the country."

On the 7th of July, Mr. "Vallandigham's courage and pres
ence of mind were severely tested. He that day visited the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 169

Ohio camps on the west side of the Potomac, where several
hundred of his constituents were stationed. Soon after arriv
ing upon the grounds, some members of a Cleveland company
approached and notified him to leave. He refused indignantly :
a tumult ensued. Several of the officers and a large majority
of the men soon rallied to his support, and the rioters retired
to their own limits. He remained an hour or two, and then
returned to Washington. The following despatch in relation
to the matter was forwarded to Baltimore and Philadelphia: —

"Alexandria, July 7, 1861. — Mr. Vallandigham, member
of Congress from Ohio, visited the Ohio regiments to-day.
While in the camp of the first regiment, a disposition was
shown by many to oust him, and, notwithstanding the nerve
and courage shown by Mr. Vallandigham, it is probable they
would have succeeded but for the protection afforded him by
the Dayton companies and a pass from General Scott. He
finally retired to the camp of the second regiment, after declar
ing himself as good a Union man as any of them, and express
ing his scorn for the mob-spirit shown by his fellow-citizens."

False reports in regard to this affair were widely circulated
by the Republican press, but the account given in the above
despatch is substantially correct, except that it ought to have
been stated that the disposition to oust Mr. Vallandigham was
confined to a single company from Cleveland.

Pending the consideration of the Volunteer Army Bill, on
the 12th of July, Mr. Vallandigham moved to strike out from
the section relating to chaplains the words "Christian denom
ination," and instead thereof to insert " religious society." He
said : —

" I do it, Mr. Chairman, because there is a large body of
men in this country, and one growing continually, of the
Hebrew faith, whose rabbis and priests are men of great learn-

170 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ing and unquestioned piety, and whose adherents are as good
citizens and as true patriots as any in the country, but who are
excluded by this section ; and because also under the Constitu
tion of the United States, Congress is forbidden to make any
law respecting the establishment of a State religion. While
we are in one sense a Christian people, and yet in another sense
not the most Christian people in the world, this is yet not a
" Christian Government" nor a government which has any con
nection with any one form of religion in preference to any
other form: I speak, of course, in a political sense alone.
For these reasons I move the amendment : while confining it
to religious societies, it will leave the appointment open to
those at least who are of the Hebrew faith, and who by the
terms of the bill are unjustly and without constitutional war
rant excluded from it."

The amendment was rejected.

On the same day Mr. Vallandigham moved the following
proviso to the same bill, accompanying it with a few remarks.
It was before any serious battle had been fought between the
contending parties : —

" ( Provided further, That before the President shall have
the right to call out any more volunteers than are already in
the service, he shall appoint seven commissioners, whose
mission shall be to accompany the army on its march, to
receive and consider such propositions, if any, as may at any
time be submitted from the executive of the so-called Confed
erate States, or of any one of them, looking to a suspension of
hostilities and the return of said States, or any one of them, to
the Union, and to obedience to the Federal Constitution and
authority/

" Mr. Chairman, I do not rise to debate this question at
length — the hour for that discussion has not yet come — but
simply to remind gentlemen on both sides of the House that
when, four years ago, the obscure and far distant Territory of
Utah, with little less than one hundred thousand inhabitants,
and insignificant in power and resources, was in armed rebellion
against the Government of the United States, the President

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 171

appointed two commissioners to accompany the army upon a
like mission of generous forbearance and humanity.

"Mr. Lovejoy. — I make the point of order that the amend
ment is irrelevant.

"The Chairman. — The Chairman overrules the point of
order.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — I rise simply to remind the House of
that significant fact, and to inquire- whether if, in a case like
that, where the lives and fortunes of a people so few, so insig
nificant, and so odious in their manners and their institutions,
were concerned, this great and powerful Government thought
it becoming, in a spirit of justice and moderation, to send com
missioners to accompany, and indeed to precede, the army on
its march, for the purpose of receiving propositions of submis
sion and of return to obedience to the authority of the Federal
Government, we ought not now, in this great revolution — this
great lebellion, if you prjfer the word — to exhibit somewhat
also of the same spirit of moderation and forbearance ; and
while the legislative department is engaged in voting hundreds
of thousands of men and hundreds of millions of dollars, we
ought not, bearing the sword in one hand, to go forth with the
olive branch in the other?

" I offer the amendment in good faith, and for the purpose
of ascertaining whether there be such a disposition in the House.
For my own part, Sir, while I would not in the beginning have
given a dollar or a man to commence this war, lam willing—
now that we are in the midst of it without any act of ours — to
vote just as many men and just as much money as may be neces
sary to protect and defend the Federal Government. It would be
both treason and madness now to disarm the Government in the
presence of an enemy of two hundred thousand men in the field
against it. But I will not vote millions of men and money
blindly, for bills interpreted by the message and in speeches on
this floor to mean bitter and relentless hostility to and subjuga
tion of the South. It is against an aggressive and invasive rear-
fare that I raise my vote and voice. I desire not to be misunder
stood. I would suspend hostilities for present negotiation, to
try the temper of the South — the Union men, at least, of the
South. But as the war is upon us, there must be an army in
the field; there must be money appropriated to maintain it;
but I will give no more of men and no more of money than is

172 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

necessary to keep that army in the position and ready to strike,
until it can be ascertained whether there is a Union sentiment
in the South, and whether there be indeed any real and sober
and well-founded disposition among the people of those States
to return to the Union and to their obedience to the authority
of this Government. I trust that this amendment will receive
that consideration which I believe it justly deserves."

And yet, incredible as it may seem, this proposition to ap
point commissioners solely for the purpose of a restoration of
ike Union by the return of the seceded States, received only
twenty-one votes !

On the 19th of July, before the battle of Bull Run, Mr.
Crittenden asked unanimous consent to offer the following
resolution : — *

" Resolved, That the present deplorable civil war has been
forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States,
now in revolt against the Constitutional Government, and in
arms around the Capital; that in this national emergency, Con
gress, banishing all feeling of mere passion and resentment, will
recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not
waged on their part in any spirit of oppression or for any pur
pose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or
interfering with the rights or established institutions of those
States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Con
stitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity,
equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired ; and that
as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to

Mr. Thaddeus Stevens objected. On the 22d of July, the
day after the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Crittenden again offered
it, and this time it was received without objection. A separate
vote was had upon the first part of the resolution in these
words : — " That the present deplorable civil war has been forced
upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 173

in revolt against the Constitutional Government, and in arms
around the Capital."

Mr. Vallandigham refused to vote for it, upon the ground
that it did not tell the whole truth and include " the disunion
Abolitionists of the Northern and Western States." He did not
vote against it, because it was true in part. It passed, yeas
121, nays 2 — Burnett, of Kentucky, and Reid, of Missouri.

The second part of the resolution was then voted upon, and
passed, yeas 117, nays 2 — Potter, of "Wisconsin, and Riddle, of
Ohio, both Republicans. Mr. Vallandigham voted for it. The
terrible defeat at Bull Run secured this unanimity. Three days
before, scarcely a single Republican would have voted for this
resolution, at least for the latter part of it ; now it passed with
only two dissenting voices.

The Military Academy Bill being under consideration, Mr.
Vallandigham denounced the new-fangled oath of allegiance
which it proposed to require of the cadets. " I am especially
opposed," he said, " to the unheard-of and execrable oath required
by one of its sections. There is no inconsistency, not the
slightest, between the allegiance which every man owes to the
State in which he lives and that which he bears to the United
States; they are perfectly reconcilable. Yet it requires the
renunciation of the allegiance which every cadet owes by birth or
adoption to his State. It is an oath which ought not to be required
of any young man of honor, or of any citizen of a free country.
I denounce it, too, as unconstitutional. All that that instrument
provides for, is an oath to support it." Here his remarks were
arrested and declared out of order, whereupon he resumed his
seat, saying, " Then, Sir, I propose to discuss it in that Great
Hereafter to which I have so often had occasion of late to
appeal."

174 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Before the adjournment he introduced a joint resolution pro
viding for the calling of a Convention of the States, to adjust
all controversies in the mode prescribed by the Constitution ;
but never during the entire Congress was able to secure
any action upon it. He had taken a most active and vigilant
part in the proceedings throughout the session ; and although
with the sympathy and support of but some eight or ten mem
bers, was always upon the alert, and on the day of the adjourn
ment was aptly described by a Republican member as "the
young man standing in the aisle, where he has stood nearly all the
session — on the frontier." The House adjourned on the 6th
of August, and the adjournment was followed by one of those
periodic and spasmodic reigns of terror with which the Adminis
tration so often afflicted the country during the war. But Mr.
Vallandigham was not molested. In contempt of all threats
of violence lie addressed several public meetings in his own
district, during and after the canvass which resulted in over
whelming defeat to the Democratic party in every State.

Congress met in second session on the 2d of December,
1861, and the House in hot haste endorsed the act of Captain
Wilkes in seizing Mason and Slidell on board the British
mail-steamer Trent. On the 15th of December, the news of
the storm of indignation in England was received. Mr. Val
landigham determined to expose the shallow but bluster
ing and cowardly statesmanship of the Abolition party in
the House. Accordingly, the next day, remarking that he
" regretted and would have opposed, had he had the power, and
prevented the Administration and this House from the folly
of taking a position in advance upon the Question, but that it

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 175

was too late now to retreat," offered a resolution pledging the
House to support the President " in upholding now the honor
and vindicating the courage of the Government and people of
the United States against a foreign power." But a great change
had come over the spirit of the House, and the resolution was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs by a vote of yeas
109, nays 16 ; all of the latter Democrats, eight of them from
Ohio. On the next day the following colloquy occurred : —

Mr. Colfax. — " I am still in favor of meting out the same
treatment to them [Mason and Slidell] as Colonel Corcoran
received."

Mr. Vallandigham.-?—" These men will be surrendered be
fore three months in the face of a threat. I make that pre
diction here to-day."

Mr. Col/ax. — " I disbelieve it,"

Mr. Cox. — "I hope that the prediction of my colleague
will never be fulfilled."

On the 29th of December, twelve days afterwards, they
were surrendered upon a peremptory demand, and hi the face
of a threat.

On the 7th of January, 1862, the subject was again brought
before the House, and in strong terms Mr. Vallandigham de
nounced the surrender of Mason and Slidell under a threat.
He was assailed, personally, as to his war record, by John
Hutchins, of Ohio, the successor of Joshua E. Giddings. The
following is an extract from his remarks in reply : —

" But I rose, Sir, to allude for a moment to what was said
some time ago by my colleague from the Ashtabula district
[Mr. Hutchins.] His remarks were not, at first, even deserv
ing of any very special reply ; and after the lapse of half an

176 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

hour, I shall forbear some things which I might have said had
the floor been assigned to me at the moment.

"In answer to his proposition. that a war with England
must result in a recognition of the Confederate States, and dis
ruption permanently of this Union, I have only to say to him,
as I said the other day to a gentleman from Indiana, that it
became him, and all others concerned, to have thought of that
on the first day of the session, when no less than three several
resolutions, directly or indirectly endorsing the act of Captain
Wilkes, passed this House without opposition. I did not at
the time approve of the resolution of thanks submitted by the
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Lovejoy], and I looked around
me in anxious suspense to observe whether there was courage
or statesmanship enough on the other side of the House to in
terpose an objection to it; but there was none. I offered
none. Had I objected, the cry would have again gone forth,
' Behold the enemy of his country, always against her ! 7 I
had nv responsibility that required me to interfere, and I did
not. Then was the time, so far as this House was concerned,
to have paused ; and so far as regards this Administration, it
was their duty to have acted when Captain Wilkes first an
chored the San Jacinto at Fortress Monroe. The law of the
case on the 12th of November last was precisely what the law
was on the 27th of December following. The facts were just
as well known and understood four-and-twenty hours after the
arrival of these men upon our coast as they were understood
and known when the despatch of the Secretary was written
and the surrender made. Honor would have been saved, and
a savor of grace imparted by a voluntary discharge at the
firs'.

u That is my reply ; and if I am to be charged with the
desire of giving aid and comfort to the Southern Confederacy
by maintaining the honor and dignity of my own country
against a foreign foe, I hurl back the charge defiantly into the
teeth of all who were concerned, directly or indirectly, openly
or tacitly, in the resolutions of the first day of this session. It
is too late now, Sir, to meet me with this mean and beggarly
insinuation. I have had enough of it outside of this House,
and will submit to none of it here.

" Mr. Chairman, I will not imitate the bad manners nor the
breach of parliamentary decorum of which the member over

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. V ALLAN DIGH AM. 177

the way was guilty, by an inquiry into his Abolition-disunion
record for the past fifteen years, as very well I might. As to
my motives, he is not the judge, nor is any other member of
this House. I have appealed to the future, and I calmly
await its judgment.

" As to my record here at the extra session, or during the
present session, it remains, and will remain. I do neither re
tract one sentiment that I have uttered, nor would I obliterate
one vote that I have given. 1 speak of the record as it will
appear hereafter, and indeed stands now, upon the Journals of
this House and in the Congressional Globe. And there is no
other record, thank God, and no act, or word, or thought of
mine, and never has been, from the beginning, in public or in
private, of which any patriot ought to be ashamed. Sir, it is
the record as I made it, and as it exists here to-day ; and not
as a mendacious and shameless press have attempted to make
it up for me. Let us see who will grow tired of his record
first. Consistency, firmness, and sanity in the midst of general
madness — these made up my offence. But ' Time, the avenger/
sets all things even ; and I abide his leisure."

On the 15th of January Mr. Vallandigham spoke upon
the question of public debt and the finances. The following
is an extract : —

" Sir, this is immeasurably the most momentous of all the
questions which are before us ; and whoever fails to meet and
to grapple with it boldly and to the full extent, is a dis-
unionist; for bankruptcy is disunion and dissolution in the
worst form, and will bring the war to an instant end ; not as
I would have it, by adjustment, fair compromise and a restora
tion of the Union, but by immediate, eternal and ignominious
separation."

On the 3d of February he addressed the House on the
subject of finances and the United States Note or "Legal Ten-
der " Bill, in a searching and exhaustive argument against a
forced Government paper currency ; predicting the inevitable
result — depreciation and final explosion. "We make some
extracts : —

12 '

178 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

•

" Sir, I recant nothing, and would expunge nothing from
the record of the past, so far as I am concerned. But my path
of duty now, as a Representative, is as clear as the sun at broad
noon. The ship of State is upon the rocks. I was not the
helmsman who drove her there; nor had I part or lot in
directing her course. But now, when the sole question is how
shall she be rescued ? I will not any longer, or at least just
now, inquire who has done the mischief. So long as they who
hold control insisted that she was upon her true course and in
no danger, but prosperously upon her voyage, though in the
midst of the storm, I had a right to resist and denounce the
madness which was driving her headlong to destruction. But
now that the shipwreck stands confessed, I recognise, and here
declare, it to be as much my duty to labor for her preservation
as it is theirs who stranded her upon the beach. Within her
sides she bears still all that I have or hope for, now or here
after, in this life ; and he is a madman or a traitor who would
see her perish without an effort to save. Whoever shrinks now
is responsible also for the ruin which shall follow.

" Here, Sir, is one of the Continental bills of November,
1776. It bears small resemblance to the delicate paper issues
and exquisite engraving of the present day in the United States.
It smacks a little of the poverty of ' Dixie J — as is said.
Instead of the effigy of Lincoln, it bears on its face a veritable
but rudely carved woodcut of the wild boar of the forest. It
was bad money, Sir, but issued in a noble cause. It is redolent
of liberty ; it smells of habeas corpus, free speech, a free press,
free ballot, the right of petition, the consent of the governed,
the right of the people to govern, public indictment, speedy
public trial by jury, and all the great rights of political and
individual liberty for which martyrs have died and heroes con
tended for ages — although I am not quite sure, Sir, that even
now it is altogether without somewhat of the odor of rebellion
lingering about it.

" There is not a member of this House, I take it for granted,
who does not desire and hope and look for an ultimate, if not
speedy restoration of the Union of these States, just as our
fathers made it. If there be one who does not, no matter on
which side of the House he sits, HE HAS NO BUSINESS HEEE.
I have differed with the Administration as to the means,
and differ widely still, but never as to the end ; if re-wnion,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 179

the old Union, be indeed the end and purpose for which they arc
contending. But I repeat it, bankruptcy is disunion and dissolu
tion in the worst form, and would instantly end the war, the
Government and the Union forever.

" Finally, Sir, if the Committee and the House shall pro
ceed upon the principles of justice and sound political economy
which have been hitherto observed by every wise Government,
and above all by this Government from the beginning in the
maintenance of its credit and good faith, I will .lend a ready
and an earnest support to every measure framed in conformity
with these principles, and intended and calculated to build up
and to sustain the public credit and good faith. Otherwise I
cannot and will not vote to bring down upon the wretched
people of this once happy and prosperous country, the triple
ruin of a forced currency, enormous taxation, and a public debt
never to be extinguished."

Just at this time, such and so great had been the flood of
denunciation and falsehood poured out upon him, that it is safe
to say that in Congress and out of it he was the most unpopular,
best abused, most execrated man in America. Pie was himself
fully conscious of the fact ; and one of the opening paragraphs
of the speech freely confesses it. " Nor am I to be deterred,"
he said, " from a faithful discharge of my duty by the con
sciousness that my voice may not be hearkened to here or in the
country, because of the continued, persistent but most causeless
and malignant assaults and misrepresentations to which for
months past I have been subjected. Sir, I am not here to
reply to them to-day; neither am I to be driven from the
line of duty by them. Strike, but hear." He was barely
listened to in the House ; yet the speech was received very
favorably among the better class of bankers and financiers in
New York and Boston.

On the 19th of February, Mr. Hickman, of Pennsylvania,

180 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. V ALL AN DIG HAM.

offered a resolution "instructing the Committee on the Judiciary
to inquire into the truth of certain charges of disloyalty made in
the local columns of a Baltimore newspaper against C. L. Yal-
landigham, of Ohio." The debate that ensued was interesting
and exciting. We give a full report that all may see the
extent and magnitude of the charges of disloyalty, as presented
by one of the shrewdest and most cunning of the Abolition
members.

The resolution above referred to having been offered, Mr.
Vallandighain said : —

" I was just waiting for an opportunity to call the attention
of the House to that statement myself, having received it from
some unknown source a moment ago. I do not know, of course,
what the motive just now of the gentleman from Pennsylvania
may be, nor do I care. My purpose then was just what it
is now, to give a plain, direct, emphatic contradiction — a flat
denial to the infamous statement and insinuation contained in
the newspaper paragraph just read. . I never wrote a letter or
a line upon political subjects, least of all on the question of
secession, to the Baltimore South, or to any other paper, or to
any man south of Mason and Dixon's line since this revolt
began — never ; and I defy the production of it. It is false,
infamous, scandalous ; and it is beyond endurance, too, that a
man's reputation shall be at the mercy of every scavenger
employed to visit the haunts of vice in a great city, a mere
local editor of an irresponsible newspaper, who may choose to
parade before the country false and malicious libels like this.
I avail myself of this opportunity to say that I enter into no
defence, and shall enter into none, until some letter shall be
produced here which I have written, or authorised to be written,
referring to ' bleeding Dixie/ or any suggestion ' how the Yankees
might be defeated/ If any such are in existence, I pronounce
them here and now utter and impudent forgeries. I have said
that I enter upon no defence. I deny that it is the duty or the
right of any member to rise here and call for investigation
foui.ded upon statements like this ; and I only regret that I did
net have the opportunity to denounce this report before the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 181

Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary rose, and in this
formal manner called the attention of the House to it — him
self the accuser and the judge. Sir, I have been for fiveiyears
a member of this House, and I never rose to a personal expla
nation but once, and that to correct a report of the proceedings
of the House. I have always considered such mere personal
explanations and controversies with the press as unbecoming
the dignity of the House.

" Nevertheless, I did intend to make this the first exception
in my congressional career, and to say — and I wish my words
reported, not only at the desk here officially, but in the gallery —
that I denounce in advance this foul and infamous statement
that I have been in treasonable, or even suspicious correspon
dence with any one in that State — loyal though it is to the
Union — or in any other State, or have ever uttered one sentiment
inconsistent with my duty, not only as a member of this House,
but as a citizen of the United States — one who has taken a
solemn oath to support the Constitution, and who, thank God,
has never tainted that oath in thought, or word, or deed. I
have had the right, and have exercised, and as God liveth and
my soul liveth, and as He is my judge, I will exercise it still
in this House and out of it in vindicating the rights of the
American citizen ; and beyond that I have never gone. My
sentiments will be found in the records of the House, except au
I have made them public otherwise, and they will be found
nowhere else. There, Sir, is their sole repository. And fore
seeing more than a year ago, but especially in the early part of
December last, the magnitude and true character of the revolu
tion or rebellion into which this country was about to be
plunged, I then resolved not to write, although your own mails
carried then the letters, nor have I written one solitary syllable
or line — as to the Gulf States months even before secession
began — to any one residing in a seceded State. And yet the
gentleman avails himself now of this paragraph to give dignity
and importance to charges of the falsest and most infamous
character. Had the letter been produced ; had the charge come
in any tangible or authentic shape ; had any editor of any
respectable newspaper, even, endorsed the charge as specific,
there might have been some apology ; but the gentleman knows
well that this charge was placed in the local columns of an
irresponsible newspaper, put_there by some person who had

182 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM,

never seen any such letter. I meet this first specific charge of
disloyalty, made responsible here — I meet it at the very thres
hold, as becomes a man and a Representative — by an emphatic
but 'contemptuous denial. This is due to the House ; it is due
to myself.

"Mr. Richardson. — I hope the gentleman from Pennsyl
vania will allow me to make a single remark.

"Mr. Hickman. — Certainly.

"Mr. Richardson. — Mr. Speaker, I want to hear nothing
about disloyalty on this side of the House while there is a class
of members here upon the other side of the House who have
declared that they will vote for no proposition to carry on the
war unless it is prosecuted in a particular line, and for the abo
lition of slavery. They would subvert the Constitution and the
Government, and I denounce them as traitors, and they ought
to be brought to trial, condemnation, and execution. '

" Mr. Hickman. — Mr. Speaker, the motives which actuated
me in introducing the resolution in question ought not to be
doubted. The severe charge contained in the article in ques
tion is made against the gentleman from Ohio, a member of
this House. Even a suspicion, a mere suspicion, would justify
sucli an investigation as this resolution contemplates. But the
gentleman from Ohio, as well as other members upon this floor,
knows that the suspicions which have existed against lim — I
do not say whether justly or unjustly — have been numerous,
and in circulation for a long time past. It is the duty of this
House to purge itself of unworthy members. I do not assert
whether the gentleman from Ohio occupies properly or im
properly his seat upon this floor. By offering this resolution
1 do not prejudge him. If he were the most intimate friend I
had on earth, accused as the gentleman from Ohio is in the
paragraph in question, I should deem it my solemn duty to
urge the investigation which is here suggested. But, Sir, this
charge does not com in a very questionable shape. It appears
as an original article in tne Baltimore Clipper, and is therefore
presumed to be editorial, or at least under the supervision of
the editor. It, to all appearances, emanates from a responsible
source.

" But, Sir, I suggest further that the suppression of the
newspaper in question, the Baltimore South, and the seizure of
its office of publication, was made under the direct authority

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 183

of the Government, and it is to be presumed that the effects of
the office are at this time in the custody of the Government
or of the agents of the Government, and, therefore, the informa
tion communicated in this paper must have come through the
Government or the agents of the Government. It is respon
sible in its origin, as far as we can judge. Now, Sir, I refer
the gentleman from Ohio, as my answer to the suggestion that
I was not justified in offering this resolution under the circum
stances, to page 69 of the last edition of the Manual. The first
paragraph of section thirteen, headed ' Examination of Wit
nesses/ reads as follows :

" ' Common fame is a good ground for the House to proceed to inquiry,
and even to accusation.'

" This, Sir, is more than common fame. I repeat that it is,
so far as it appears, a direct charge by the editor of a respon
sible newspaper. The information comes, we must believe,
through the Government or the agents of the Government, and
it is therefore more than common fame. It is good ground at
least for instituting an inquiry.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I desire to ask the gentleman from
Pennsylvania whether he does not know that this is a mere
local item, and that the author of it does not even pretend to
have seen the letters.

" Mr. Hickman. — I do not understand what the gentleman
means by saying that the author of the paragraph has not seen
them.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I say he does not profess to have
^een them, and I know that he never did, for they never were
written, do not now exist, and never did exist.

" Mr. Hicbnan. — Who never saw them ?

" Mr. Vallandigham. — The author of that paragraph in the
local columns of this newspaper.

" Mr. Hickman. — He never saw the letters ?

" Mr. Vallandigham. — He does not profess even to have
seen them.

" Mr. Hickman. — Whether it is a local item or not, it is an
original article in a responsible newspaper, and is therefore pre
sumed to have been inserted under the direct supervision of the
editor, if not written by him.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — The gentleman from Pennsylvania

184 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

has alluded to suspicions existing in former times. Now, I
desire to know of him whether he ever heard of any specific
item on which any such suspicions ever rested — anything other
than words spoken in this House or made public over my own
name ?

" Mr. Hickman. — Yes, Sir.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Well, let us have it.

" Mr. Hickman. — I have heard a thousand.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Name a single one.

" Mr. Hickman. — I do not desire to do any injustice to the
gentleman from Ohio.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I have asked the gentleman, and I
desire a direct answer to my question, whether he can specify
one single item ?

" Mr. Hickman. — I will reply to it directly.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Or does the gentleman mean merely
the newspaper slanders that have been published against me,
and which I have denounced as false, over and over again, in
cards and on the floor of this House ?

" Mr. Hickman. — I know nothing about that, Sir. I
know that suspicions may well exist, and I know they do exist,
where denials accompany them.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Yes ; I know that fact in the gentle
man's own case.

" Mr. Hickman. — I have no controversy with the gentleman
from Ohio, nor am I here to defend myself in the course which
I have taken. Let him defend himself, and allow me to take
care of myself, as I expect to be able to do.

" Mr. Richardson. — Will the gentleman from Pennsylvania
allow me

" Mr. Hickman. — I will not suffer any interruption except
by the gentleman from Ohio. He has a right to interrupt me,
and I am glad he does so, because I do not want to put the
gentleman from Ohio in any false position any more than I
would desire to be myself placed in one ; and I will not do it.
I do say, most distinctly, that suspicions have existed against
the loyalty of the gentleman from Ohio ; and I would not
have referred to them at all if I had not been satisfied that he
himself knew of the existence of those suspicions as well as I
did. Indeed, the remarks which preceded my rising on this
floor indicated the fact more clearly than I myself could in-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 185

dicate it by anything that I could say, that he was in posses
sion of a knowledge of the existence of those suspicions, for he
got up to repel them, not merely such as are contained in this
article in question, but in general terms — general suspicions
and imputations against his character. That was deemed right
by him, Sir. I have nothing to say against it.

" Now, the gentleman asks for specifications. I am called
upon by him to refresh my memory, and to give an instance.
I will give him one or two. I may not be able to give more
at this time. Perhaps, if he were to give me time, I would
be able to refer him to many more instances.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Mr. Speaker —

" Mr. Hickman. — The gentleman must allow me to answer
his question, and then he may interrupt me. I must reply to
one inquiry at a time. I am now on the witness-stand —
brought to it by the gentleman from Ohio. I am on cross-
examination, and he must allow me to answer one question
before he propounds to me another. Now, Sir, I refer to the
fact of the Breckenridge meeting in the city of Baltimore,
where* the gentleman from Ohio attended, and which gave rise
to very many suspicions, allow me to say ; at least, I have
heard a great many expressed. Allow me again to refer to the
fact of his attending a certain dinner in Kentucky, which was
given, I believe, in his honor, or which was, at least, published
as such in the papers.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Allow me, right there

" Mr. Hickman. — Allow me first

" Mr. Vallandigham. — That is a specific fact, which I wish
to answer.

" Mr. Hickman. — Not this moment.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I appeal to the gentleman's honor.

" 3Ir. Hickman. — I will treat the gentleman from Ohio
fairly. He must receive all my answer before he asks me
another question.

"Mr. Vallandigham — rLet him oblige me by reDlying to
me specifically.

" Mr. Hickman. — I am not done with my answer, and I
refuse to yield the floor until I finish my answer. I am
entitled to be treated here properly, as well as the gentleman
from Ohio. I will extend to him all the courtesy that can
possibly be demanded by any gentleman. That is mv habit,,

186 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

I trust. There are many other items. There was the speech
which the gentleman made at the July session in this House —
a speech which was understood to be one of general accusation
and crimination against the Government and against the party
having the conduct of this war. It gave rise to a great many
suspicions ; and the gentleman from Ohio, with his intelligence,
ought not to be ignorant of all these facts. Well, Sir, will not
conversations naturally arise in consequence of these facts?
And I appeal to every member of this House whether they
have not heard suspicion upon suspicion against the loyalty of
the gentleman from Ohio. Is it not a common rumor, Sir,
that he is suspected ? I allege that it is a common rumor in
the Northern States, and among the loyal people of the loyal
States, that the gentleman from Ohio is, at least, open to grave
suspicion, if not direct imputation. That is my answer. Now
I will hear the gentleman.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — In reply to the specification, and the
only one which the gentleman has been able to point out,
relating to a public dinner in Kentucky, allow me to tell him
that my foot has not pressed the soil of Kentucky since the
10th day of July, 1852, when, as a member of a committee
appointed by the Common Council of the city where I reside, I
followed the remains of that great and noble man, true patriot
and Union man, Henry Clay, to their last resting-place. I
have partaken of no dinners there or elsewhere of a political
character, nor did I ever attend any Breckenridge meeting at
Baltimore or elsewhere at any time. This is my answer to
that, the only specification. And yet the gentleman dares at
tempt to support that falsehood, which I here denounce as
such, by allusions to suspicions which have been created and
set afloat throughout the whole country, not merely against
me, but against hundreds and thousands of others, in whose
veins runs blood as patriotic and loyal as ever flowed since the
world began. I tell the gentleman that, in years past, I have
heard his loyalty to the Union questioned. I have known of
things which would have justified me — had I relied on
authority similar to that to which he has attempted to give dig
nity — in introducing similar resolutions to make inquiry into
his purpose to disrupt this Union by the doctrines which he
has held and the opinions which he has expressed. And yet
opinions and sentiments uttered here are ' the head and front
of my offending.' It has ' this extent : no more.'

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 187

" And, Sir, I replied, some time ago, to two others which I
doubt not the gentleman would have dragged now out of the
mire and slough into which they had fallen but that they were
answered when thrust into debate by the gentleman before me
[Mr. Hutchins] — I refer to the charge that I had once uttered
the absurd declaration that the soldiery of the North and West
should pass over my dead body before they should invade the
Southern States. I denied it then, and will not repeat the
denial now.

" Nor need I refer again to that other charge that I had
uttered, in debate here or elsewhere, the sentiment that I pre
ferred peace to the Union ; I have heretofore met that charge
with a prompt and emphatic contradiction, and no evidence
Jias been found to sustain it. Referring to that and other
charges and insinuations on the 7th of January last, I said to
my colleague :

" < As to my record here at the extra session or during the
present session, it remains and will remain/

"And just here, Sir, in reference to the speech to which the
gentleman alluded, delivered on this floor in the exercise of my
constitutional right as a member of this House, on the 10th
of July last, I defy him — I hurl the defiance into his teeth —
to point to one single disloyal sentiment or sentence in it. I
proceeded to say, further, on the 7th of last month :

" ' I do neither retract one sentiment that I have uttered,
nor would I obliterate a single vote which I have given. I
speak of the record as it will appear hereafter, and indeed
stands now upon the Journals of this House and in the Con
gressional Globe. And there is no other record, thank God,
and no act or word or thought of mine, and never has been
from the beginning, in public or private, of which any patriot
ought to be ashamed. Sir, it is the record as I made it, and
as it exists here to-day 5 and not as a mendacious and shame
less press have attempted to make it up for me. Let us see
who will grow tired of his record first. Consistency, firmness,
and sanity in the midst of general madness — these made up
my offence. But " Time, the avenger," sets all things even ;
and I abide his leisure/

" And am I now to be told, that because of a speech made
upon this floor, under the protection of the Constitution, in the
exercise and discharge of my solemn right and duty under the

188 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

oath which I have taken, that I am to-day to be arraigned here,
and the accusation supported by the addition of mere vague
rumors and suspicions which have been bruited over and over
again, as I have said, against not myself only but against
hundreds and thousands also of other most patriotic and loyal
men?

" The gentleman from Pennsylvania makes the charge that
I attended a certain dinner in the State of Kentucky. Sir, I
was invited to that State, and have been frequently, by as true
and loyal men as there are in that State to-day. I accepted no
invitation, and never went at all. I have already named the
last and only time when I stood upon the soil of Kentucky.
But I know of nothing now — whatever there may have been
in the past — certainly nothing to-day about Kentucky that
should prevent a loyal and patriotic man from visiting a State
which has given birth or residence to so many patriots, to so
many statesmen, and to orators of such renown.

" Yet that is all the grand aggregate of the charges, except
this miserable falsehood which some wretched scavenger, prowl- s
ing about the streets and alleys and gutters of the city of Balti
more, has seen fit to put forth in the local columns of a contemp
tible newspaper ; so that the member from Pennsylvania may
rise in his place and prefer charges against the loyalty and
patriotism of a man who has never faltered in his devotion to
the flag of his country — to that flag which hangs now upon
the wall over against him ; one who has bowed down and wor
shipped this holy emblem of the Constitution and of the old
Union of these States in his heart's core, ay, in his very heart
of hearts, from the time he first knew aught to this hour ; and
who now would give life and all that he has or hopes to be in
the present or the future, to see that glorious banner of the
Union — known and honored once over the whole earth and
the whole sea — with no stripe erased and not one star blotted
out, floating forever over the free, united, harmonious old Union
of every State once a part of it, and a hundred more yet unborn.
I am that man ; and yet he dares to demand that I shall be
brought up before the secret tribunal of the Judiciary Commit
tee — that committee of which he is Chairman, and thus both
judge and accuser — to answer to the charge of disloyalty to
the Union!

" Sir, I hurl back the insinuation. Bring forward the spe-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 189

cific charge ; wait till you have found something — and you
will wait long — something which I have written, or something
I have said, that would indicate anything in my bosom which
he who loves his country ought not to read or hear. In every
sentiment that I have expressed, in every vote that I have
given in my whole public life, outside this House before I was
a member of it, and since it has been my fortune to sit here, I
have had but one motive, and that was the real, substantial,
permanent good of my country. I have differed with the ma
jority of the House, differed with the party in power, differed
with the Administration, as, thank God, I do and have the
right to differ, as to the best means of preserving the Union,
and of maintaining the Constitution and securing the best in
terests of my country; and that is my offence, that the crime
and the only crime of which I have been guilty.

" Mr. Speaker, if in the Thirty-fifth Congress I or some
other member had seen fit to seize upon the denunciations,
long-continued, bitter and persistent, against that member
[Mr. Hickman] — for he too has suffered, and he too ought
to have remembered in this the hour of sore persecution that
he himself has been the victim of slanders and detraction, per-
ad venture — for, Sir, I would do him the justice which he de
nies to me — what, I say, if I had risen and made a vile para
graph in some paper published in his own town, or elsewhere,
the subject of inquiry and investigation, and had attempted
to cast yet further suspicion upon him by reference to language
uttered here in debate, which he had the right to utter, or by
charges vague and false, and without the shadow of a founda
tion except the malignant breath of partisan suspicion and
slander, what would have been his record in the volumes of
your reports and the Congressional Globe, going down to his
children after him ? But, Sir, it is not in the power of the
gentleman to tarnish the honor of my name, or to blast the
fair fame and character for loyalty which I have earned, dearly
earned with labor and patience and faith, from the beginning
of my public career. From my boyhood, at all times and in
every place, I have never looked to anything but the perma
nent, solid, and real interests of my country.

" Beyond this, Mr. Speaker, I deem it unnecessary to extend
what I have to say. I would have said not a word but that
I know this committee will find nothing, and that they will

190 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

be obliged therefore to report — a majority of them cheer fully,
I doubt not — that nothing exists to justify any charge or
suspicion such as the member from Pennsylvania has suggested
here to-day. I avail myself of the occasion thus forced on me,
to repel this foul and slanderous assault upon my loyalty,
promptly, earnestly, indignantly, yes, scornfully, and upon the
very threshold. Sir, I do not choose to delay week after week
until your partisan press shall have sounded the alarm, and
until an organization shall have been effected for the purpose
of dragooning two-thirds of this House into an outrage upon
the rights of one of the Representatives of the people which is
without example except in the worst of times. I meet it and
hurl it back defiantly here and now.

" Why, Sir, suppose that the course which the member from
Pennsylvania now proposes had been pursued in many cases
Avhich I could name in years past ; suppose that his had been
the standard of accusation, and irresponsible newspaper para
graphs had been regarded as evidence of disloyalty or want of
attachment to the Constitution and the Union : what would
have been the fate of some members of this House, or certain
Senators at the other end of the Capitol, in years past ? What
punishment might not have been meted out to the pre
decessor [Mr. Giddings] of my colleague on the other side of
the House [Mr. Hutchings]? How long would he have
occupied a seat here ? Where would the Senator from Massa
chusetts [Mr. Sumner] have been ? t Where the other Senator
from Massachusetts [Mr. Wilson] ? Where the Senator from
New Hampshire [Mr. Hale]? Where the three Senators.
Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Hale, two of them now in the
Cabinet and the other in the Senate still, who in 1850, twelve
years ago, on the llth of February, voted to receive, refer,
print, and consider a petition praying for the dissolution of the
Union of these States ? Yet I am to be singled out now by
these very men, or their minions, for attack ; and they who
have waited and watched and prayed, day by day, with the
vigilance of the hawk and the scent of the hyena, from the
beginning of this great revolt, that they might catch some
unguarded remaik, some idle word spoken, something written
thoughtlessly or carelessly, some secret thought graven yet
upon the lineaments of my face which they might torture into
evidence of disloyalty, seize now upon the foul and infectious

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. ,191

gleanings of an anonymous wretch who earns a precarious
subsistence by feeding the local columns of a pestilent news
paper, and while it is yet wet from the press, hurry it, reeking
with falsehood, into this House, and seek to dignify it with an
importance demanding the consideration of the House and of
the country.

" Sir, let the member from Pennsylvania go on. I chal
lenge the inquiry, unworthy of notice as the charge is, but I
scorn the spirit which has provoked it. Let it go on."

Mr. Hickman then replied briefly, and in the course of his
remarks said : —

"As the gentleman nas called upon me, 1 will answer
further. Does he not know of a camp in Kentucky having
been called by his name — that disloyal men there called their
camp, Camp Vallandigham ? That would not indicate that in
Kentucky they regarded him as a man loyal to the Federal
Union.

" Mr. Vallandigliam. — Is not there a town, and it may be a
camp too, in Kentucky by the name of Hickman ? [Laughter.]

"Mr. Hickman. — Thank God, disloyal men have never
called one of their camps by my name. There are a great many
Hickmans in Kentucky, but I have not the pleasure of their
acquaintance. I have heard of but one Yallandigham.

"Mr. Vattandigham. — And there arc a great many Val-
landighams there too."

Mr. Hickman, after a few words further, withdrew his
resolution, and there the matter ended.

This resolution, though wholly without notice, gave Mr.
Yallandigham the fit occasion, long waited for, to defend him
self from the suspicions and calumnies to which he had so long
been exposed, and he improved it to the utmost; and with un
disturbed self-possession and dignity, but in tones the most
earnest and indignant, retorted with so much vigor and spirit
upon his accuser that he was glad to escape by withdrawing
the resolution. The rencontre was of very great advantage

192 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to Mr. Vallandigham, and was the first break in the cloud
which hitherto had rested over him. His allusion to the flag
which hung above the Speaker's seat, forced admiration from
even a hostile House and galleries. As he sat down he heard
a friend say, "He has not made a mistake nor spoken an ill-
advised word from the beginning." Friends gathered around
and congratulated him on his triumph, and in the evening a
large number called upon him at his residence to renew their
assurances of regard and esteem, and to express their gratifica
tion at the handsome manner in which he had repelled the
assault that had been made upon him.

In a letter to his wife next day, Mr. Vallandigham thus
refers to the matter : —

"... You see by the papers this morning, I presume, that
Hickman and I had a bout in the House yesterday. You will
see it in full in the Globe, but cannot ^realise the scene. ... I
was never more gratified in my life with any result. In an
instant every Democrat in the House took fire, resenting it as
an outrage upon himself. Corning was much excited, and old
Governor Crittenden was deeply interested, and was just taking
the floor for a speech in my behalf when Hickman surrendered
and withdrew his resolution. I never spoke or bore myself
better in my life — so all say, and so I believe too — though it
was a sudden emergency. Many Kepublicans complimented me,
and last night all the Democrats of the House, except a few who
could not get out, called round and spent an hour or so in con
gratulation. It was a signal triumph ; but the truth in regard
to it will not find its way into the newspapers. Very probably
it will be all misrepresented. But some day the country will
understand it, just as all who were present now do. They will
let me alone by-and-bye."

On the 21st of April Mr. Wade, of Ohio, attacked him in
the Senate; on the 24th Mr. "Vallandigham replied in the
House, and the character of the reply was such that an attempt

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 193

was made to pass a vote of censure upon him. The whole
proceeding in the case, from the official record in the Con
gressional Globe, we here give : —

" HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
" THURSDAY, April 24th, 1862.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — Mr. Chairman, I have waited patiently
for three days for this the earliest occasion presented for a per
sonal explanation.

"In a speech delivered in this city the other day — not in this
House — certainly not in the Senate? — no such speech could
have been tolerated in an American Senate — I find the fol
lowing : —

" ' I accuse them [the Democratic party] of a deliberate purpose to assail,
through the judicial tribunals and through the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States, and everywhere else, and to overawe,
intimidate, and trample under foot, if they can, the men who boldly stand
forth in defence of their country, now imperilled by this gigantic rebellion.
I have watched it long. I have seen it in secret. I have seen its move
ments ever since that party got together, with a colleague of mine in the
other House as Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions — a man w7u>
never liad any sympathy with tJie Republic, but whose every breath is devoted to
its destruction Just as far as his lieart dare permit him to go?

"Now, Sir, here in my place in the House, and as a Repre
sentative, I denounce — and I speak it advisedly — the author
of that speech as a liar, a scoundrel, and a coward. His name
is BENJAMIN F. WADE.

" [After the transaction of some other business, the follow
ing proceedings took place : — ]

" PERSONAL EXPLANATION.

" Mr. Slake. — Mr. Speaker, a short time since, when my
colleague [Mr. Vallandigham] got the floor and made some
desultory remarks

" Mr. Cox.— What is before the House ?

" The Speaker pro tempore. — For what purpose does the
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Blake] rise ?

" Mr. Blake. — For a personal explanation.

" The Speaker pro tempore. — Is there objection?

13

194 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — If it relates to me, I shall, of
course, have the same privilege extended to me, and with that
understanding I have no objection.

" The Speaker pro tempore. — Is there any objection to the
gentleman from Ohio making a personal explanation ?

" Mr. Cox.- — I will not object if the same privilege be ex
tended to my colleague [Mr. Vallandigham] to make a reply.

" There was no objection.

" Mr. Blake. — Mr. Speaker, I was not aware, when my col
league [Mr. Vallandigham] commenced his remarks, that he
referred to a member of Congress. I understood him to say
distinctly that no member of this House had made the remarks
to which he referred, and that certainly they were not made in
the Senate, because the Senate would not tolerate such remarks.
I therefore paid little attention to my colleague till he came to
the close of his remarks wherein he denounced a Senator from
Ohio as ( a liar, a scoundrel, and a coward.' Now, I wish to
call the attention of the House to the fact that my colleague
perpetrated these remarks on the House under the false pre
text that they were not made in reference to a member of Con
gress.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I call the gentleman to order.

" The Speaker pro tempore. — On what ground does the gen
tleman call his colleague to order ?

'' Mr. Vallandigham. — Because he states that I uttered that
sentence under a false pretext. I will take down the gentle
man's words.

" Mr. Blake. — I desire to change that a little. If my col
league wishes me to be more explicit, I will utter something
which my colleague may take down. I say, then, Mr. Speaker,
that my colleague uttered the remarks which he made in refer
ence to the Senator from Ohio under the false declaration that
they were not to be made in reference to any member of Con
gress.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — I call the member from Ohio to or-
<der, on the ground that his remarks are of personal application
to me, and I call for the decision of the Chair on that point.

" The Speaker pro tempore. — The gentleman on the left will
proceed in order.

•" Mr. Blake. — I sought the floor immediately after the gen
tleman dropped into his seat for the purpose of calling him to

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM 195

order, and for the purpose of having the words uttered by him
in reference to the Senator from Ohio taken down. I have
since constantly sought the floor, but this is the first opportu
nity I have had to call the attention of the House to the mat
ter. In doing so now, I ask that the remarks of the gentle
man from Ohio, my colleague, may be taken down in order
that the House may take subsequent action thereupon. I de
sire, however, first to say to him and to the House that his
character and the character of the Senator to whom he has
referred are well known, and I do not rise here to repel any
charge of liar, any charge of scoundrel, or any charge of cow
ard, coming from the source from which these charges now
proceed. The Senator from Ohio is too well known in my
own State and in the United States, and my colleague is too
well known, to make it necessary to answer any declaration
coming from my colleague. I repeat, they are both known to
the people of that State, they are both known to the people of
the United States, and I am willing to let them stand upon their
own record for their own defence.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — I am known, Sir, in the State of
Ohio, having somewhat the advantage of my colleague in that
respect. I am known to the people of my own city also, and
I take occasion to say that on the 7th of the present month the
issue wa» there made at the polls whether I should be endorsed
as a public man and a public servant in my public conduct
here and elsewhere, and the verdict of the people of that city
upon that direct issue wras returned in my favor in the persons
of my friends, by a majority of one hundred and forty-eight,
being a change since last October of six hundred and forty
votes.

"Mr. Blake. — Was the gentleman a candidate in that
election?

" Mr. Vallandigham. — No, Sir, but the issue was made
directly, and if the gentleman questions it, I propose to read
the resolution upon which it was made.

"Mr. Moorehead. — I rise to a question of order. I cannot
see that this has anything to do with the matter before the
House.

"The Speaker pro tempore. — The Chair thinks the gentleman
from Ohio is in order, and he will proceed.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — A convention was held in Dayton,

196 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

where I reside, by the party to which my colleague now belongs,
a combination or fusion of Republicans, and other elements of a
mixed character, opposed now to the Democratic party. This
regularly-called, city convention, in nominating its candidates,
adopted a platform containing but a single point. It was extra
ordinary, Sir, indeed that such a platform should have been made,
forgetting the high purposes of an election, and containing but
a single issue, and that merely personal to a fellow-citizen,
appealing to the people of that city to vote for candidates solely
on that personal issue. The platform was in these words :

" 'Resolved, That we will take the occasion of our ensuing city election
to make it known to all men that the city of Dayton repudiates Clement
L. Vallandigham and his organ, the Dayton Empire, and rebukes them for
their refusal to support the Government in its death-struggle with trea
son ; and to the end that this rebuke may be made the more emphatic, we
call upon all loyal men, without respect to party, to vote for the Union,
anti-Yallandigham, anti-Empire ticket this day nominated.'

" Sir, that direct issue thus proffered was openly, flatly and
boldly accepted by my friends, and after a violent contest of
three weeks, the election resulted in the success of the entire
Democratic ticket, from Mayor down, upon the sole question,
by an average majority of some two hundred, against four
hundred and ninety-twTo fusion majority at the State election
last fall. The issue was indeed unworthy even of a municipal
election, and it is not fit that it should be named here, except
in reply to the member from Ohio. That, Sir, is all that I
have to say in regard to it.

" The request of my colleague that my words may now be
taken down, comes quite too late. The rule upon this subject
is emphatic. And although I am ready to meet here and
elsewhere any responsibility that may arise from anything I
have uttered, yet my colleague shall not deprive me of my con
stitutional rights as a member of this House.

"Mr. Slake. — I should like to know what my colleague
means by elsewhere. I know of no place to meet these issues
but here.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — "Well, Sir, this city is several square
miles in circumfeience, the District of Columbia is some
what larger, the State of Ohio includes a yet more extended
area of territory, and the United States are very much larger
still. I believe that covers all that comes under the denomina
tion of { elsewhere,' so far as regards my present purposes. I

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 197

mean outside of the House. I need say nothing more beyond
tnat now. Any explanation or negotiation demanded or pro
posed outside of the House will, of course, be responded to
according to the manner in which it may happen to be pre
sented. I neither seek nor shun controversy with any gentle
man. Anything done inside must be settled in accordance with
the Constitution, the laws, and the rules of the House.

" Now, in the first place, I deny that I have violated any
rule. I took a paper and read from a printed speech that which
related to me personally, and which contained a foul and infa
mous libel which the utterer knew at the time to be false and
slanderous. He, the member from Ohio, talks now, indeed, of
the opprobrium of the epithets 'liar/ ' scoundrel/ and 'coward!7
Does he not know that the word 'traitor' enters here now cov
ered ten times over with the leprosy of reproach ; and am I to
stand in this Hall unmoved while that epithet is insinuated
against me, in all its taint and foulness, by a member of the
Senate, it may be, where I have no chance to meet and hurl it
back on the spot as it deserves ? Am I to bear it calmly any
longer, uttered by any responsible person ? I tell you, nay !
And when I choose to meet and brand it as a man and as a gen
tleman should meet and brand it, am I to be called in question
here and the first offender go acquit ? Sir, I referred to the
man, not to the Senator. My manner of allusion was in accor
dance with ancient parliamentary usage ; and if the member
from Ohio had known anything about parliamentary usage, he
would have known that following the practice of the Irish and
the British Parliaments, I said nothing for which I could pro
perly be called to order in debate. I put a suppositions case,
and no man can, under parliamentary precedent, object to it.
That, Sir, is my first answei

" But I scorn to stand upon that point alone. If what I said
has been out of order, let the member from Ohio go to the Senate
first, and there vindicate the violated obligations of parlia
mentary decorum. Is it disorderly for a member of this House
to refer to a member of the Senate and yet exactly in order for a
Senator to denounce a member of this House, who sits here not
by your consent — although you have the right to expel him,
two-thirds concurring, if he has been guilty of a sufficiently
grave offence — but under the same Constitution and laws, and
by the equal, nay, better title of the will of the people — is he to

198 LIFE, OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

be denounced as a ' man who never had any sympathy with this
Republic, and whose every breath is devoted to its destruction,
just as far as his heart dare permit him to go ' ? And has the
member from Ohio no holy indignation against a Senator who
has thus wantonly, and in violation of all parliamentary law,
slandered a Representative in this House? Sir, let him go to
the Senate where those false words were uttered, if they were
uttered in the Senate, and let him see to it that that body shall
first vindicate its obligations to the members of this House,
before he dares to call me to a reckoning for words spoken in
retort here. How does he know that the words spoken by me
had reference to a Senator ? But no ; suppose they had, what
of it ? Was not the retaliation j ust what he deserved ? Could
anything less have expiated the offence ? Sir, I spoke of him
as Benjamin F. Wade, an individual, a citizen of my own
State, and made no allusion to him as a Senator. He was the
aggressor ; he provoked the retaliation, and it was deserved. I
pass by his assault upon the Democratic party. That party
will take care of itself.

" But, Sir, independent of all this, if I were out of order, it
is too late, under the positive and peremptory language of your
rules, to make inquisition into it now. I repeat again, that
assailed as I have been, persecuted and hounded as I have been
for twelve months past, not to speak of former years, I have a
right to throw myself back immovably upon the strictest law
of parliamentary proceeding, and insist upon every right and
privilege which the Constitution, the laws and the rules of this
House give to me. The 62d rule of the House is peremptory
upon this subject. It is in these words : —

"' If a member be called to order for words spoken in debate, the

Eerson calling him to order shall repeat the words excepted to, and they shall
e taken down in writing at the Clerk's table . and no member shall be held
to answer, or be subject to the censure of the House, for words spoken in de
bate, if any other member has spoken, or other business has intervened, after
the words spoken, and before exception to them shall have been taken.'

" There is the rule, Sir, and there is no evading it. It has
been acted upon in this House on several occasions. The
question was decided once, when the words were applied to a
member of the House in his presence, and yet under the rule
and because the words excepted to were not at once taken down,
the House did not inflict its censure, as in that case it other-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 199

wise deservedly might have done. In another case, Mr.
Sherman, of Ohio, instantly rose and demanded that the ob
jectionable words should be taken down, when uttered by Mr.
Houston of Alabama. They were taken down and censure
moved, but the motion was finally withdrawn after explana
tions, and the case thus disposed of. Such, Sir, is the rule,
and the practice under it ; and yet my colleague comes now
here and asks that the Constitution shall be violated, which
authorises and requires this House to establish its rules ; and
the rules themselves over-ridden. And for what ? To cen
sure me for words spoken of one who has basely traduced my
character as a loyal citizen and Representative, and made a
charge against me which I choose hereafter to meet only just as
I have met it to-day.

" Sir, the accusation which he preferred he knew coma not
be established. This House had failed even to make inquisi
tion into it, because it was without even a decent pretext for
inquisition. He knew that when a resolution of inquiry
merely was offered here, it was withdrawn by the mover after
debate. He knew all that, and yet wantonly and without
provocation renewed the charge of disloyalty.

" Sir, the rule declares that the words must be taken down
at the time. They cannot be reduced to writing after another
member has spoken, or other business has intervened. No
censure can be inflicted for words taken down an hour after
wards, and not at the Clerk's desk. On that subject I am
perfectly indifferent, and it is with the utmost reluctance that I
throw myself upon the indulgence of the House to make this
explanation. The gentleman has made his. I have made
mine, and am content. Whenever the Senator from Ohio

" T7ie Speaker pro tempore. — The gentleman is out of order
in alluding to a member of the Senate.

" Mr. Vattandigham. — I could not avoid it after the refer
ence to him as Senator by my colleague ; but I retract it.
Whenever Benjamin F. Wade

" The Speaker pro tempore. — The gentleman is again out of
order. *•

"Mr. Vallandigham. — I have not finished the sentence.
Whenever Benjamin F. Wade shall take back the false and
slanderous accusation which he has made against me, I will
take back the one I have applied to him ; but not before.

200 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Mr. Blake. — I have not desired to do my colleague injus
tice. I was amazed to hear the remarks which fell from his
lips in regard to the Senator from Ohio. I felt, as a Kepre-
sentative from Ohio, that that State had been insulted —
shamefully insulted — by the remarks which fell from my col
league's lips.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — May I ask a question?

" Mr. Blake.— Wait until I get through.
' " I have not read the speech to which the gentleman refers.
My colleague said that that speech was not made here, nor wras
it made in the Senate of the United States, because, as he said,
such remarks would not be tolerated in that body. I had a
right to presume that no such remarks as he was about to
characterise would fall from a Senator's lips. Since I heard
his remarks, I have obtained the floor as soon as I could, to
call him to order and have his words taken down. I do not
desire to do my colleague injustice, but I will say this : I infer
from the remarks that he has made that the Senator from Ohio
has characterised him as a traitor. Am I right ?

" Mr. Vallandigham. — The language of Benjamin F. Wade
was, that I was a man who had no sympathy with the
country.

" The Speaker pro tempore. — Both the gentlemen from Ohio
are out of order.

"Mr. Blake. — I desire to say that three-fourths of the
people of Ohio look upon my colleague in the same light.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Three-fourths of the people there
denounce the gentleman as an Abolition disunionist.

" Mr. Hutchins obtained the floor.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I ask the gentleman to yield to me.

"Mr. Hutchins. — I decline. I rise to a question of privilege,
and offer for adoption the following resolution ; and on its
adoption I demand the previous question :

" ' WfiereaS) Hon. C. L.VALLANDTGHAM, a member of this House, of the
State of Ohio, in Committee of the Whole, made use of the following lan
guage concerning Hon. B F. WADE, a Senator in Congress :

" ' Mr. Chairman, I have waited patiently for three days for this the
earliest occasion presented for a personal explanation. In a speech deliv
ered in this city — not in this House — certainly not in the Senate — no
such speech could have been tolerated in an American Senate — I find the

following:

# * * * * * * * *

" ' Now, Sir, here in my place in the House and as a Representative, I

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 201

denounce — and I speak it advisedly — the author of that speech as a liar,
a scoundrel, and a coward. His name is BENJAMIN F. WADE. *

, " * And whereas said remarks are a violation of the rules of this House,
and a breach of its" decorum, and deserve the censure of 'the House ;
Therefore,

" * Resolved, That C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, for said violation of the rules
of the House and its decorum, is deserving of censure, and is hereby
censured.'

"Mr. Vallandigham. — I make the point that the resolution
is not in order under the following rule :

" ' 62. If a member be called to order for words spoken in debate, the
person calling him to order shall repeat the words excepted to, and they
shall be taken down in writing at the Clerk's table ; and no member shall
be held to answer or be subject to the censure of the House, for words
spoken in debate, if any other member has spoken, or other business has
intervened, after the words spoken, and before exception to them shall
have been taken.'

" And then, on motion of Mr. Sheffield (at five o'clock p. M.),
the House adjourned.

FRIDAY, April 25, 1862.

" The House met at twelve o'clock M. Prayer by the Chap
lain, Rev. Thomas H. Stockton.

" The Journal of yesterday was read and approved.

"QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE.

"The Speaker. — The question pending when the House
adjourned was one of privilege, raised by the gentleman from
Ohio [Mr. Hutchins] against his colleague [Mr. Vallandig
ham.] The following is the resolution submitted to censure
the gentleman from Ohio for disorderly words spoken in debate
in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union :

" 'Whereas, Hon. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, a member of the House, of the
State of Ohio, in Committee of the Whole, made use of the following
language concerning Hon. B. F. WADE, a Senator in Congress :

" ' Mr. Chairman, I have waited patiently for three days for this the
earliest occasion presented for a personal explanation. In a speech deliv
ered in this city — not in this House — certainly not in the Senate — no
such speech could have been tolerated in an American Senate — I find the
following:

" * Now, Sir, here in my place in the House— and as a Representative, I
denounce — and I speak it advisedly — the author of that speech as a liar,
a scoundrel, and a coward. His name is BENJAMIN F. WADE.

202 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" * And whereas, said remarks are a violation of the rules of this Houst,
and a breach of its decorum, and deserve the censure of the House :
Therefore,

"' Resolved, That C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, for said violation of the rules
of the House and its decorum, is deserving of censure, and is hereby
censured.'

"On that resolution the question of order is made that
under the express language of the 62d rule of the House the
gentleman from Ohio could not now be held to answer, or be
subject to the censure of the House for the words spoken,
another member having spoken and other business having inter
vened before exception to them was taken, and that consequently
the preamble and the resolution could not be entertained by the
House. The Chair will have read the 62d rule, and a para
graph from the Manual.

" The Clerk read as follows : —

'"If a member be called to order for words spoken in debate, the
person calling him to order shall repeat the words excepted to, and they
shall be taken down in writing at the Clerk's table : and no member shall
be held to answer, or be subject to the censure of the House for words
spoken in debate, if any other member has spoken, or other business has
intervened after the words spoken and before exception to them shall
have been taken. — Sixty-Second Mule.

" ' Disorderly words spoken in a Committee must be written down as
in the House, but the Committee can only report them to the House for
animadversion. — Manual, jp. 77.'

"The Speaker. — The Chair decides, the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. Hutchins) in his resolution not having complied
with either the rule of the House or the provision of parlia
mentary law, and therefore the point of order is well taken.''

This was the only occasion upon which Mr. Yallandigham
ever departed from the strictest decorum and propriety of lan
guage in the House; but the provocation was extreme, and
Wade was the first responsible endorser whom he had found
of the accumulated falsehoods and detraction of a whole year.

Mr. Vallandigham's friends in Congress and throughout
the country wrere greatly pleased with the ability and fearless
ness with which he had repelled the assault of AVade, and with
the tact and skill he had exhibited in escaping the censure

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 203

which the House was about to inflict unjustly upon him. On
the other hand, Mr. Wade's friends were greatly incensed and
seriously meditated personal violence, but knowing the courage
of Mr. Vallandighain, his vigilance, and the fact that he was
always thoroughly armed, they finally concluded that " discre
tion was the better part of valor."

One other attack only we will notice. In June, Shellabarger
and Gurley, of Ohio, presented printed petitions from citizens
of their own districts, none from Mr. "Vallandigham's, asking
for his expulsion from the House as a t( traitor and a disgrace
to the State of Ohio." The petitions were referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary, consisting of the following mem
bers : John Hickman, chairman ; John A. Bingham, William
Kellogg, Albert G. Porter, Benjamin F. Thomas, Alexander
S. Diven, James F. Wilson, George H. Pendleton, and Henry
May ; all of them Republicans, except May and Pendleton.
This Committee, on the very same day on which the petitions
were presented, by a unanimous vote ordered them to be re
ported back and laid upon the table ; and accordingly on the
first day that the Committee was called, July 3, 1862, Mr.
Bingham reported them back, and on his motion they were laid
on the table, 110 evidence whatever of either "treason" or "dis
grace " having been produced to the Committee. Seven times
during the session these attacks were made, and as often failed.
Indeed, he himself stated to a friend that for months he never
heard an Administration membei address the Chair without
looking up to see if a resolution for his censure or expulsion
was about to be offered. But he escaped the trying ordeal
unscathed. It was said afterwards that " he oould not be de
tected, because he was too sharp to leave his tracks uncovered."

204 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Never make any tracks/7 said he in reply, " and none will
ever be found out." During this session, also, his vigilance
was never for a moment relaxed. Powerless in numbers and
influence, he had but one weapon — knowledge of the rules of
the House, and skill in parliamentary law ; and he used it
with the utmost efficiency.

The violent public commotion which followed the procla
mation of the 15th of April, 1861, the apparent unanimity in
support of the war, the desertion of many of the old Demo
cratic leaders and the fatal timidity of others, together with
the specious cry of "No Party," had greatly paralysed the
Democratic organization. Its disastrous defeat that year in
every State where elections were contested, almost dissolved it.
Repeated efforts had been made by Mr. Yallandigham and the
little band with which he acted to restore the party, but all
had failed, and two several " caucuses " of the Democratic
members of Congress had broken up in disorder. The case
was still more hopeless in December. But he closely watched
and calmly waited for the opportune moment ; and in March,
1862, taking advantage of the rapid and bold development
of the real purposes of the party in power in their various
schemes for confiscation and emancipation, he drew up a call
for a conference of the Democratic Senators and Representatives,
and obtained signatures to the number of thirty-five. The
meeting was held on the 25th of March, and after a full dis
cussion and some altercation, it was resolved that the organiza
tion of the party should be perfected, and on motion of Mr.
Vallandigham ordered that a committee be appointed to pre
pare an address to the people of the United States. But pre
vious to this a secret and concerted effort was being made by

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM. 205

certain Eastern politicians of the Democratic party, in combi
nation with others of the old Whig and American parties, to
disband the former, and to consolidate a new conservative orga
nization with a new name. They who were in this movement
managed, upon the pretext that Mr. Vallandigham was too
unpopular to be on the committee, or indeed to be recognised
as a member of the party, to postpone, and finally to defeat
the appointment of the committee ordered by the conference.
But he, and those who acted with him, were not to be thus
beaten. He prepared an address which, after much delay and
difficulty, was signed by twelve Democratic Representatives
from the West (six of them from Ohio), and by two from
Pennsylvania, and one from New Jersey ; all the other Eastern
members except one, and four of the Western, refusing peremp
torily to sign it. It was issued on the 8th of May, and three
days later the new conservative movement culminated in a
caucus in the hall of the House of Representatives, John J.
Crittenden presiding. But the address was already before the
public, and to the Democratic masses it was as the call of the
trumpet to battle. The following is an extract : —

" Does the history of the Democratic party prove that it
ought to be abandoned ? ' By their fruits shall ye know them.7
Sectional parties do not achieve Union triumphs. For sixty
years from the inauguration of Jefferson on the 4th of March,
1801, the Democratic party, with short intervals, controlled
the power and the policy of the Federal Government. For
forty-eight years out of these sixty Democratic men ruled the
country ; for fifty-four years and eight months the Democratic
policy prevailed. During this period Louisiana, Florida,
Texas, New Mexico, and California were successively annexed
to our territory, with an area more than twice as large as all
the original thirteen States together. Eight new States were
admitted under strictly Democratic administrations — one

206 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

under the administration of Fillniore. From five millions
the population increased to thirty-one millions. The Revolu
tionary debt was extinguished. Two foreign wars were suc
cessfully prosecuted, with a moderate outlay and a small army
and navy, and without the suspension of the habeas corpus;
without one infraction of the- Constitution ; without one usurpa
tion of power ; without suppressing a single newspaper ; with
out imprisoning a single editor; without limit to the freedom
of speech in or out of Congress, but in the midst of the
grossest abuse of both; and without the arrest of a single
' traitor/ though the Hartford Convention sat during one of
the wars, and in the other Senators invited the enemy to
' greet our volunteers with bloody hands, and welcome them to
hospitable graves/

"During all this time wealth increased, business of all
kinds multiplied, prosperity smiled on every side, taxes were
low, wages were high, the North and the South furnished a
market for each other's products at good prices ; public liberty
was secure, private rights undisturbed ; every man's house was
his castle ; the courts were open to all ; no passports for travel,
no secret police, no spies, no informers, no bastiles ; the right
to assemble peaceably, the right to petition ; freedom of reli
gion, freedom of speech, a free ballot, and a free press ; and all
this time the Constitution maintained and the Union of the
States preserved.

" Such were the choice fruits of Democratic principles and
policy, carried out through the whole period during which the
Democratic party held the power and administered the Federal
Government. Such has been the history of that party. It is
a Union party, for it preserved the Union, by wisdom, peace,
and compromise, for more than half a century.

" Then, Democrats, neither the ancient principles, the policy,
nor the past history of the Democratic party require nor would
justify its disbandment.

" Is there anything in the present crisis which demands it ?
The more immediate issue is, To maintain the Constitution as
it is, and to restore the Union as it was.

" To maintain the Constitution is to respect the rights of
the States and the liberties of the citizen. It is to adhere
faithfully to the very principles and policy which the Demo
cratic party has professed for more than half a century. Let

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 207

its history and the results from the beginning prove whether it
has practised them. We appeal proudly to the record."

Few political documents have ever produced a greater effect
than this address. The effort to supersede the Democratic
organization utterly failed. In every State Democratic tickets
were put in nomination, and the extraordinary and almost
universal successes of the year followed. About the time of
the publication of the address, Mr. Vallandigham visited
Philadelphia and New York for the first time since the com
mencement of the war, and was in both cities and along the
route received with honor by his friends. In the latter he
was tendered a serenade at the Metropolitan Hotel, but appre
hending that the war fever had not yet sufficiently subsided,
he declined it.

On the 2d of July Mr. Vallandigham left Washington
for Columbus, Ohio, to attend the Democratic State Conven
tion on the Fourth. It was one of the largest, most enthusi
astic and harmonious ever convened in the State. The delega
tion from Mr. Vallandigham's district alone numbered five
hundred and fifty. The largest hall in the city, crowded to its
utmost capacity, failed to accommodate more than one-fourth
part of those in attendance. It was, therefore, determined,
after a partial and temporary organization, to adjourn to the
State House grounds, in order that the thousands of Demo
crats present might be enabled to participate in and witness
the proceedings of the Convention. There Mr. Vallandigham
addressed the people in a speech wholly extemporaneous, but
most impassioned, and delivered with a voice and gesture ter
ribly in earnest. Its effect upon the audience was very great.
One delegate described his shoulders as bruised and blue for

208 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

several days from the spasmodic working of the fingers of a
stalwart countryman behind him during the delivery. The
following are his closing remarks : —

" Sir, I have misread the signs of the times and the temper
of the people if there is not already a spirit in the land which
is about to speak in thunder- tones to those who stretch forth
still the strong arm of despotic power, i Thus far shalt thou
come, and no farther. We made you ; you are our servants.'
That, Sir, was the language which I was taught to apply to
men in office when I was a youth, or in first manhood and a
private citizen ; and afterwards when holding office as the gift
of the people, to hear applied to me, and I bore the title
proudly. And I asked then, as I ask now, no other or
better reward than 'Well done, good and faithful servant/
[Cries of { You shall have it ; you deserve it.7] But to-day,
they who are our servants, creatures made out of nothing by
the power of the people, whose little brief authority was
breathed into their nostrils by the people, would now, forsooth,
become the masters of the people ; while the organs and in
struments of the people — the press and public assemblages —
are to be suppressed; and the Constitution, with its right of
petition, and of due process of law and trial by jury, and the
laws and all else which makes life worth possessing — are to
be sacrificed now upon the tyrant's plea that it is necessary to
save the Government, the Union. Sir, we did save the Union
for years — yes, we did. W*e were the ' Union savers' not
eighteen months ago. Then there was not an epithet in the
whole vocabulary of political billingsgate so opprobrious in the
eyes of a Republican when applied to the Democratic party as
'Union-shriekers,' or the 'Union-savers.' I remember in my
own city, on the day of the Presidential election in 1860 — I
remember it well, for I had that day travelled several hundred
miles to vote for Stephen A. Douglass for the Presidency — that
in a ward where the judges of election were all Democrats,
your patriotic Wide-a- Wakes, strutting in unctuous uniform,
came up hour after hour thrusting their Lincoln tickets 'twixt
thumb and finger at the judges, with the taunt and sneer, 'Save
the Union ; save the Union ! ' And yet now, forsooth, we are
' traitors ' and ' secessionists ! ' And old gray-bearded and gray-
headed men who lived and voted in the times of Jefferson and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 209

Madison, and Monroe, and Jackson — men who have fought
and bled upon the battle-field, and who fondly indulged the
delusion for forty years that they were patriots, wake up sud
denly to-day to find themselves ' traitors ! ' — sneered at, reviled
arid insulted by striplings ' whose fathers they would have dis
dained to have set with the dogs of their flock/ Of all these
things an inquisition searching and terrible will yet be made,
as sure and as sudden too, it may be, as the day of judgment.
We of the loyal States — we of the loyal party of the country,
the Democratic party — we the loyal citizens of the United
States, the editors of loyal newspapers — we who gather
together in loyal assemblages, like this, and are addressed by
truly loyal and Union men as I know you are to-day and at
this moment ['That's so ; that's the truth !'] — we, forsooth, are
to be now denied our privileges and rights as Americans and as
freemen ; we are to be threatened with bayonets at the ballot-box,
and bayonets to disperse Democratic meetings ! Again I ask,
why do they not take up their muskets and march to the South,
and like brave men, meet the embattled hosts of the Confederates
in open arms, instead of threatening, craven-like, to fight
unarmed Democrats at home — possibly unarmed, and possibly
not ? [Laughter and applause, and a remark — 'That was well
put in/] If so belligerent, so eager to shed that last drop of
blood, let them volunteer to reinforce the broken and shattered
columns of McClellan in front of Richmond, sacrificed as he
has been by the devilish machinations of Abolitionism, and
there mingle their blood with the blood of the thousands who
have already perished on those fatal battle-fields. But no, the
whistle of the bullet and the song of the shell are not the sort
of music to fall pleasantly upon the ears of this Home Guard
Republican soldiery

" With reason, therefore, feliow-citizens, j. congratulate you
to-day upon the victory which you have achieved. A great
poet has said — ;

'Peace hath her victories as well as War.7

To-day the cause of free government has triumphed ; a victory
of the Constitution, a victory of the Union, has been wron, but
is yet to be made complete by the men who go forth from this
the first political battle-field of the campaign, bearing upon
their banners that noble legend, that grand inscription — THE.

14

210 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

CONSTITUTION AS IT is, AND THE UNION AS IT WAS. [Great
cheering.] In that sign shall you conquer. Let it be in
scribed upon every ballot, emblazoned upon every banner,
flung abroad to every breeze, whispered in the zephyr and
thundered in the tempest, till its echoes shall rouse the fainting
spirit of every patriot and freeman in the land. It is the
creed of the truly loyal Democracy of the United States. In
behalf of this great cause it is that we are now, if need be, to
do and to suffer in political warfare whatever may be de
manded of freemen who know their rights, and knowing, dare
maintain them. Is there any one man in all this vast assem
blage afraid to meet all the responsibilities which an earnest
and inexorable discharge of duty may require at his hands in
the canvass before us ? [' No, no, not one ! ?] If but one, let
him go home and hide his head for very shame.

' Who would be a traitor knave,
1 "Who could fill a cowarcVs grave,

Who so base as be a slave,
Let him tujra. and flee.'

" It is no contest of arms to which you are invited. Your
fathers, your brothers, your sons are already by thousands and
hundreds" of thousands on the battle-field. To-day their
bones lie bleaching upon the soil of every Southern State from
South Carolina to Missouri. It is to another conflict, men of
Ohio, that you are summoned; but a conflict, nevertheless,
which will demand of you some portion at least of that same
determined courage, that same unconquerable will, that same
inexorable spirit of endurance which make the hero upon the
military battle-field. I have mistaken the temper of the men
who are here to-day, I have misread the firm purpose that
speaks from every eye and beams from every countenance,
which stiffens every sinew and throbs in every breast — I have
misread it all if you are not resolved to go home and there
maintain at all hazards and by every sacrifice, the principles,
the policy and the organization of that party to which again and
yet again I declare unto you, this Government and country are
indebted for all that have made them grand, glorious and great.
[Cheers and great applause.] "

This speech was received with unbounded applause. In
fact, his entire reception at Columbus was one of the proudest

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 211

and most gratifying. He arrived in that city on the evening
of the 3d, and after midnight responded to a serenade; the next
day addressed the Convention, and again at night spoke from
the hotel to an immense assemblage — three speeches within
twenty hours.

These evidences of admiration of his character and approval
of his course were very cheering to Mr. Vallandigham, He
had been persecuted as no man in this country had ever been
persecuted. He felt it keenly ; but satisfied that he was right,
he would not alter his course. And now there seemed to be a
change in his favor. The assaults that had been made upon
him in Congress in the winter and spring he had triumphantly
repelled — repelled in such a way as to elicit the highest
admiration of his friends, and to command the respect even
of his foes. Evidences of the proper appreciation of his char
acter and course were multiplying around him. To these he
refers in a letter to liis mother, dated —

"WASHINGTON, D. C., June 14, 1862.

"... I wish I could get away from here. I am weary,
very weary of it. It is impossible to tell how soon we will
adjourn, but I am going home the last of this month. If we
are to adjourn soon after, I shall not return to Washington
till November. ... If I do not return to Washington, we
will come up to Lisbon some time in July. I shall be rejoiced to
be there again, and to see you, dear mother, again, and all of yon.
I am sure the visit as to outside matters will be more pleasant
than last summer ; and at home all will be sweet, and the old
hills, and the woods, and the rocks, and the accustomed walks
of my boyhood, all, all will be very, very dear to me after all
I have done and suffered. But my reward is coming — coming
sooner than I expected. Friends are springing up or speaking
out everywhere. God has been very good to me in the midst
of sore persecution, and has delivered me out of the hands of

212 LIFE OF CLEMEIS7T L. VALLANDIGHAM.

my enemies, and given me the victory over them in every
assault. But it was so written down in the ' Promises ? many
ages ago. Whoever will do right, firmly and wisely, will be
sustained if he endure to the end. I could not in many pages
give you fully the continual evidences of good feeling and
praise which I now receive from every quarter, although
abused daily still too. Only night before last an Ohio military
band (from Mansfield) marched in from camp seven miles dis
tant to serenade me.

"I am greatly rejoiced to hear of your still improving good
health. May you live long enough yet to see peace and the
beginning of prosperity restored once more to this unhappy
country. I am still hopeful of the future, even amidst the
darkness which surrounds us, and the evil and wickedness
which I see on every side."

But Mr. Vallandigham had not long to congratulate himself
on the favorable change. About the last of July the storm of
persecution burst out again. McClellan had just been defeated
and hurled back upon the James river, though after a gallant
and stubborn resistance and a most masterly retreat. Pope's
short but disastrous campaign began. More troops were
demanded, and the reign of terror was renewed with greater
violence than ever before. Two clergymen from the " Union "
Slave States, who had been upon a visit to Mr. Vallandigham,
were arrested on their way home. It had been the intention
to arrest them at his house, and to seize him with them.
Arrangements were made afterwards to arrest him separately,
and officers came up for that purpose from Cincinnati. Mr.
Vallandigham's friends rallied to his support, and his house
and all approaches to it were securely guarded. Regular
reports of the arrival of all trains were brought to him, and
ward and watch kept continually till break of day. Not a
footfall upon the pavement escaped his ear. Such was his vigi-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 213

I

lance and that of his friends that at length the intention to

arrest him was for the present abandoned.

And now Mr. "Vallandigham determined to address the
people of Dayton, to whom he had not spoken since the war
began. It was a bold movement, exhibiting the highest
moral as well as physical courage, since repeated threats had
been made during the preceding eighteen months that he
would not be allowed to speak; and, independent of this, the
deed of assassination might easily be done under cover of dark
ness. The meeting was appointed for the evening of the 2d of
August, and uncertain as to the number who would attend, it
was announced for a public hall in the city ; but as evening
approached, an immense concourse of people, numbering
some eight thousand, assembled. The hall was speedily filled
to overflowing, but not an eighth part of the audience could
gain entrance. The meeting was accordingly adjourned to
the south side of the beautiful stone court-house of the city.
The following account of the reception of Mr. Vallandigham
we take from the Empire: —

" The calls for Mr. Vallandigham brought that gentleman
to the stand. The instant his form was seen, the cheering
became absolutely deafening. Almost wild with delight to
see their brave champion still unscathed among them, after
the threats of arrest and the countless tales of his flight from
the myrmidons, not of the law, but of the despot's will, cheer
after cheer went forth, hats were waved, and vain was the
effort of the presiding officer to check its progress. At times it
seemed almost subdued, but again and again they broke forth
with increased energy, and it seemed almost as if nature must
completely exhaust itself ere the wild delight with which the
constituents greeted their representative could be stifled suf
ficiently to enable him to acknowledge their greeting save by
gesture. It was a free heart-offering to bravery and to truth,

214 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

I

a spontaneous ovation tendered from the constituents to the
representative, worthy alike of both."

Mr. Vallandigham addressed the vast and excited multitude
for nearly three hours, in a speech which was received with
exalted enthusiasm, and which, when published, called forth
the highest encomiums. " Elevated in tone, statesman-like in
conception, full of pathos, and pure in diction," said the editor
of the Crisis, " it thrills the reader as though fresh from a
Roman Senate in the hour of Rome's most terrible trials for
freedom and existence." At the close the people accompanied
him in triumph to his home. The victory was won, and he
was secure.

"We would like to make copious extracts from this able
speech, but have room for only a few sentences.

" I too," said he, "have sworn to support the Constitution;
and more than that, I have done it. I demand that all men,
from the humblest citizen up to the President, shall be made
to obey it likewise. In no other way can we have liberty,
order, security. I was born a freeman. I shall die a freeman.
It is appointed to all men once to die ; and death never comes
too soon to one in the discharge of his duty. I have chosen
my course, have pursued it, have adhered to it to this hour,
and will to the end, regardless of consequences. My opinions
are immovable ; fire cannot melt them out of me. I scorn
the mob. I defy arbitrary power. I may be imprisoned for
opinion's sake : never for crime, never because false to the
country of my birth, or disloyal to the Constitution which I
worship. Other patriots, in other ages, have suffered before
me. I may die for the cause; be it so; but 'the immortal
fire shall outlast the humble organ which conveys it, and the
breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die
with the prophet, but survive him.' And, meantime, men of
Dayton, the opinions which I entertain, the deep convictions
that control me in that course which, before Almighty God, I
believe can alone maintain the Constitution and restore the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 215

Union as our fathers made it, I never, never will yield up.
Neither height nor depth, neither death nor life, nor princi
palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come —
no, nor the knife of the assassin, shall move me from my firm
purpose."

On the 4th of September, 1862, the Congressional Conven
tion of the Third District, now composed of the counties of
Butler, Montgomery, Preble, and Warren, met at Hamilton,
and Mr. Vallandigham was nominated by acclamation. In
formed of his nomination, and conducted to the stand, he signi
fied his acceptance in an address of which the following is a
portion : —

" At your demand, therefore, men of the Third District, I
accept the nomination, and present myself to the people for
their suffrages, upon no other platform than THE CONSTITUTION
AS IT is AND THE UNION AS IT WAS. It is a platform broad
enough for every patriot. Whoever is for it, I ask his support.
Whoever is against it, I would not have his vote. Every
faculty of body and mind which I possess shall be exerted
unremittingly for the great purpose implied in this platform."

.Referring to threats made that in certain localities in the
District he would not be allowed to speak, he said : — " Let it
be understood once for all, that wherever in any part of any
county in the district it is deemed convenient and proper to
announce a Democratic meeting, it will be held; and God willing.,
I will address it." He made his declaration good, canvassing
every county, and addressing large and enthusiastic meetings
of the people. But since the election in 1860 a hostile Legis
lature had changed the District, adding thereto a county giving
always an overwhelming Republican majority. The sole
struggle, therefore, was to carry his original district, and in
this he succeeded by a largely increased majority

216 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

The Cincinnati Times, a Republican paper, referring to the
result in the Third District, the day after the election, said : —

" ' Vallandigham, though his district, in the new apportion
ment, was arranged especially to defeat him, is barely defeated,
and that is all. In his old district, where a year ago he scarcely
dared attempt to address a popular assemblage, he has a majority
of about 700, and is defeated only from the fact that a very
strong Republican county has been added to the district. These
facts are given as an illustration of the political revolution that
has undoubtedly begun in the Northwestern States."

The Cincinnati Enquirer, the next day, quoting the above,
said: —

"The Times is correct in its facts. The Hon. C. L. Val
landigham has obtained the greatest personal and political tri
umph ever won by any public man in the United States. In
the face of a storm of abuse, obloquy, slander and denunciation
from every Abolition print and every Abolition orator from
Maine to California, which in fury was probably never equalled,
Mr. Vallandigham has been endorsed by the constituents whom
lie represents in Congress, by a majority of 800 votes, an
increase of 700 since his last election in 1860. Denounced as
a traitor, as a secessionist, as an enemy of his country by the
fawning parasites of power, by vindictive political partisans
who have sought to make his name synonymous with treason,
his life and liberty threatened by those who were ignorant of
his political record, he has appealed to the people of his district,
and he has been triumphantly sustained."

But though nobly sustained by his old district, the change
that had been made by the addition of Warren county secured
his defeat ; and this was deeply regretted all over the country.
The following from the Mount Vernon (Ohio) Banner expresses
the tone and feeling of the Democratic press throughout the
Union : —

" The defeat of the gallant Clement L. Vallandigham in
the third district is greatly lamented by all good Union-loving

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 217

Democrats. The Republicans purposely formed a district to
defeat him, and they have been successful by a small majority.
But they cannot put Mr. Yallandigham down. Although
slandered more than any living man, he has come out of the
' fiery ordeal ' like pure gold. Higher honors yet await him."

The fall elections in all the States resulted in Democratic
triumphs. The reign of terror was broken down and free
speech once more secured. Mr. Yallandigham addressed many
immense meetings in Ohio and Indiana, continuing his labors
up to the day of his departure for Washington. He was
everywhere received with extraordinary honors and enthusiasm.
Interesting accounts of these meetings published in the papers
at the time we have in our possession, and would like to pre
sent them, but space will not permit. One only we will give
— a brief notice of the meeting in Mr. Yallandigham's native
place, New Lisbon. The Patriot, describing the meeting,

" Word had circulated that Vallandigham, the friend of the
Constitution and the Union, was to speak, and the old men of
the county who used to listen to his father's preaching, and the
young men who admired his valor and his patriotism, came in
by hundreds to get the political gospel from the son. Never
in New Lisbon did there assemble so many of the sober and
pious people of the county. Mr. Yallandigham was born and
raised in New Lisbon, and was well known to the people of
this county previous to his removal to Dayton. When a
young man, fully confiding in his ability and integrity, they
elected him to the Legislature of the State ; and their confi
dence in his patriotism and statesmanship has been increased
by every act of his life. He has been the subject of much
abuse from the Republicans, but they cannot show one word
he has ever uttered that was disloyal ; while it would be very
easy to establish that, if every man in the North had pursued
the same course for the last ten years, we would have had no
war, no Federal tax, no draft, no stricken people mourning for

218 LIFE 'OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM,

their dead kindred, victims of battle. Mr. Vallandigham is
immensely popular."

At one of the meetings in Indiana, arrangements were made
by the Governor and United States Marshal to arrest him on
his way home at night. His friends urged that under cover
of darkness he should be taken in a carriage past the point
where the arrest was to be made; but he answered, " I came
by the cars, and in that way I mean to return, arrested or not,
— so help me God." He took the train, and although the
Marshal and a company of soldiers were at the depot, no
arrest was attempted. He subsequently addressed a meeting
near the same place and upon the same road, but was not even
threatened.

On the 21st of November, at a handsome entertainment
given by Judge Morse at his residence near Dayton, an elegant
gold-headed cane with a suitable inscription was presented to
Mr. Vallandigham by the ladies. Thomas O. Lowe, Esq.,
— now Judge Lowe — of Dayton, on behalf of the ladies made
the presentation speech, as follows : —

" Mr. Vallandigham: — The ladies of Dayton whom you see
here this evening, have made it my pleasant duty to present to
you in their names this cane. You are to receive it, Sir, as a
testimonial of their personal respect and esteem, and as an evi
dence of their admiration of the unflinching fortitude with
which you have always maintained the principles you have
believed to be right. And it is also an assurance that while
many of the daughters of America have been changed by this
woful war into violent and bloodthirsty beings, in whom we
now strive in vain to discover any of those merciful and com
passionate traits which we have admired in them heretofore,
and without which the character of every woman is sadly defi
cient, there are yet some of them among us who love not vio
lence, who shrink from thoughts of bloodshed, who are ap-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 219

palled as they witness with us all the unfolding of that fearful
panorama which shows us brothers engaged in deadly strife,
which is lighted by the lurid flames of hell, and which has for
its orchestral accompaniment the wails of widows and orphans.
There are yet some who from their very natures have depre
cated this war, who desired as you did that it should be
averted, and who now pray that the Ruler of Heaven and
Earth, who is the Prince of Peace and God of Love, will turn
the hearts of men from all bitterness and strife, so that blood
shed may be known among us no more forever. And if there
be a prayer which the e ministering angels ' round about us
more gladly hear and more quickly bear to the ear of Heaven
than any other, it must be theirs. The Saviour of men said,
' Blessed are the peacemakers/ and

' Gave His life

To bend man's stubborn will;
When elements were fierce with strife,
Said to them, " Peace, be still." *

" Although these ladies are not of those who arrogate to
themselves the right to speak with authority upon those ordi
nary political topics whose consideration more rightfully, if not
exclusively belongs to the sterner sex, they yet desire to-night
to express to you their belief that if all the men of the North
and South had but loved this Union as well and had struggled
as wisely for the best interests of the country as you, this war
would have beeh averted, and that even now, if the com
batants could but be imbued with a patriotism as true as yours,
this struggle would speedily cease, our Union be restored as it
was, and everything which has in days gone by made Ameri
cans proud of their country, would come back to us again.

" . . . And we all think, Sir, that it is not among the least
of the services you have rendered to your country that you
have shown that there is such a thing as unconquerable devo
tion to principle ; that there is one statesman among us who
is not to be moved from his convictions of right by any danger
or threatenings ; that if one obeys the exhortations of "Wolsey,
and makes his aims ' his country's, his God's, and truth's/ he
need not fear. Though storms may be raging all around him,
he will be ( sustained by an unfaltering trust/ and have 'that
peace which is above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet con-

220 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Mr. Yallandigham replied as follows : —

" Mr. Lowe : — "With a grateful heart I receive this cane from
the ladies for whom you have just spoken. Valuable in itself,
it is to me far more valuable because of the kindly motives
which have induced its presentation, but especially as a testi
mony of their approbation of my conduct as a public man in
the recent and present perilous times of the country. From
them I accept it as a large recompense for whatever of calumny
and reproach I have endured for the last eighteen months,
because of my adherence to principle and a course of public
policy which in my conscience and judgment I believed essen
tial to the restoration of the Union and the best interests of
my country. Such honors are bestowed commonly upon the
heroes of military warfare; but if I merit any part of the
praise which you have so eloquently expressed, it is moral
heroism which to-night is honored by these ceremonies. It is
the victories of peace which you here celebrate. Her triumphs
are indeed grander, and her conquests nobler than any achieved
by the military hero upon the battle-field. And it is especially
fitting that these honors should be paid to the cause — though
I myself may deserve them not — by the women of the country;
and while I lament that so many among them should have for
gotten the softness of their sex and' the mild teachings of a
religion essential indeed to man, but especially congenial to
woman's nature, yet I rejoice that so many also have laid not
aside the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, but remembered
and clung yet the more steadfastly to the gospel of peace and
love even amid the phrensy of a desolating and demoralising
civil war. True to woman's mission, they are or will be the
wives, mothers, daughters and sisters who by precept, example,
or association shall bring back yet the present, or educate a new
generation which shall restore peace, the Union and Constitu
tional liberty with all their virtues and their blessings once
more to this bleeding and distracted country. If, indeed, Sir,
I have exhibited any part of the high qualities of courage, for
titude and immovable devotion to the good and the right
which on behalf of these ladies you have so kindly attributed
to me, it is to one of their own sex, more than to any other
human agency, that I am indebted for them — my mother. In
childhood, in boyhood and in youth, in the midst of many
trials, from, her teachings and by her example, I learned those

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 221

lessons and formed the character and habits — if it be so —
which fitted me with courage and endurance and unfaltering
faith to struggle with the terrible times in the midst of which
we live.

" Congratulating the ladies on the selection of yourself as
their representative upon this occasion, and thanking you cor
dially for the many kind things you have been pleased to say,
I accept this beautiful present with my most grateful acknow
ledgments to one and all here assembled."

At the conclusion of the ceremonies the ladies and gentle
men present partook of an elegant supper, worthy of the host
and accomplished hostess, and of the good old " Butternut "
hospitality of former days.

The Thirty-Seventh Congress met in third session the first
of December. From May down to that period scarcely any
thing but disaster had befallen the Federal arms. The
elections had nearly all terminated adversely to the Admin
istration. All was alarm, almost terror. Arbitrary arrests
were suspended ; Forts Warren and La Fayette and other bas-
tiles gave up their prisoners; and Mr. Seward graciously
announced in an official despatch the return of the country to
its " normal condition," when all citizens might freely
oppose and criticise the measures and conduct of the men in
power. But one more effort was yet to be essayed against Rich
mond. The fortunes of battle were committed to the " weak
but presumptuous Burnside," who, on the 13th of December,
for five hours, with frantic recklessness, drove on his columns
against the Confederate intrenchments, and at nightfall, after
the loss of fourteen thousand of his best troops, had earned the
well-deserved cognomen of " the Butcher of Fredericksburg."
The day before the battle Mr. Yallandigham had arrived in
New York. Affairs were now changed; and accepting a

222 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

proffered serenade at the New York Hotel, he addressed a very
large assembly, and there, amid great applause, first uttered
the word " PEACE " in public meeting in that city.

Returning to Washington, he found the Administration and
their friends in Congress casting about for some mode of
escape from the struggle, with safety to themselves. Nego
tiation, armistice, mediation, peace were no longer treasonable
words. About this time he offered the following series of
resolutions, as amendatory to certain ones offered the day before
by Thaddeus Stevens : —

"Resolved, That the Union as it was must be restored and
maintained, one and indivisibleforever, under the Constitution
as it is, the fifth arti cle,providing for amendments, included.

"Resolved, That if any person in the civil or military
service of the United States shall propose terms of peace, or
accept or advise the acceptance of any such terms, on any other
basis than the integrity of the Federal Union, and of the sev
eral States comprising the same, and the Territories of the
Union, as at the beginning of the present civil war, he will be
guilty of a high crime.

"Resolved, That this Government can never permit the in
tervention of any foreign nation in regard to this present civil
war.

"Resolved, That the unhappy civil war in which we are
engaged was waged in the beginning professedly not in any
spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjuga
tion, or for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the
rights or the established institutions of the States ; but to de
fend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to
preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights
of the several States unimpaired, and was so understood and
accepted by the people, and especially by the army and navy
of the United States ; and that, therefore, whoever shall per
vert, or attempt to pervert, the same to a war of conquest and
subjugation, or for the overthrow or interfering with the rights
or established institutions of any of the States to abolish slavery
therein, or for the purpose of destroying or impairing the dig-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGKEAM. 223

nity, equality or rights of any of the States, will be guilty of a
flagrant breach of public faith, and a high crime against the
Constitution and the Union.

"Resolved, That whoever shall propose by Federal authority
to extinguish any of the States of the Union, or to declare any
of them extinguished, and to establish territorial Governments
within the same, will be guilty of a high crime against the
Constitution and the Union.

"Resolved, That whoever shall affirm that it is competent
for this House, or any other authority, to establish a dictator
ship in the Wnited States, thereby superseding or suspending
the Constitutional authorities of the Union, and shall proceed
to make any movement toward the declaring of a dictatorship,
shall be guilty of a high crime against the Constitution and the
Union and public liberty."

These resolutions were laid on the table by a vote of yeas
79, all Republicans, to nays 50, all Democrats and Constitu
tional Union men. They sufficiently indicate the fears that
wTere entertained by Mr. Vallandigham and others in reference
to the terms of settlement that would be proposed, or the meas
ures that would be adopted by the Administration, provided
disaster should still continue to follow the Federal arms.

The Christmas recess soon after occurred, and members sep
arated. Re-assembling in January, 1863, the drawn battle at
Murfreesboro7, and the costly but total failure before Vicks-
burg, had been added to the long list of disasters. About this
time Mr. Vallandigham was approached by letter and personal
interview, on the part of one of the most eminent and influen
tial supporters of the Administration, to ascertain whether some
means could not be devised to bring about a cessation of hos
tilities through foreign mediation, leaving the terms of adjust
ment to foreign arbitration. Whatever the design of this pro
position, the effect and issue were palpable • — final peaceable

224 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

separation. Mr. Vallandigham was ready and anxious for any
thing that would stop the war, and believing that mediation
would at that time be "the speediest, easiest, most graceful mode"
of effecting his object, he agreed to support it, but rejected
"arbitration" as both impracticable and dangerous, insisting that
"the people of the several States here at home must be the final
arbitrators of the great quarrel in America, and the people and
the States of the Northwest the mediators who should stanft
like the prophet betwixt the living and the dead, that the
plague of disunion might be stayed."

On the 14th of January, Mr. Vallandigham delivered a
speech on " The Great Civil War in America, " a speech which
produced perhaps as profound a sensation as any ever delivered
in the halls of Congress. A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Gazette, a bitter enemy of Mr. Vallandigham, thus describes
the scene : —

" Finally the flow of motions ceases ; the Speaker announces
the resolutions of the gentleman from Pennsylvania under con
sideration and the gentleman from Ohio entitled to the floor,
and Mr. Vallandigham rises, leaves his usual seat 011 the
extreme left and moves over to near the centre of the opposition
benches.

"There is a little flutter in the hall. This matter may
require attention ; it is well enough to lay aside the unfinished
letters to constituents and drafts of new bills, and listen a little
while. The wonderful old man from Pennsylvania [Stevens],
who at 70 years of age retains all the fire and vigor of his
earlier manhood, and, with the aid of a snuff-colored wig, makes
everybody think him only fifty, still the imperious and some
times w^rong-headed leader of the House, faces about to the
opposition side, braces himself back in his chair, and grimly
eyes the member on the floor. Portly and good-natured Love-
joy bristles up, hitches his chair forward, and raises his hand to
liis ear to catch the opening sentences. Gray-headed, crabbed-
faced, ruffle-shirted Wickliffe rears aloft his huge hulk of once

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 225

noble Kentucky proportions, and with the aid of crutch and
cane hobbles his gouty way down the aisle, and seats himself
just under his friend, the orator's extended hand, the better
to catch the droppings from this sanctuary of Democracy, pure
and undefiled, Colfax, Avith an attention to the business before the
House that is never at fault, turns sharp and quick in his chair
to listen. The Chairman of the Military Committee, black-
whiskered Olin of New 'York,' walks down the aisle to the
Clerk's desk, and takes a position to hear distinctly. There is'
a general rising and turning on the Democratic and Border
State side to get more favorable positions. The ladies on the
front 'seats in the galleries lean over to catch a better view of
the ogre from Ohio. The hitherto sleepy-looking occupants of
the reporters' gallery shake oif their indifference, exchange
hurried remarks with each other, and -lean over to notice how he
opens, for this speech has been talked about and expected a

long time He begins boldly, defiantly even, and i»;'

speedily preaching the very doctrine of devils. You can never
subdue the seceded States. Two years of fearful experience have
taught you that. Why carry on the war? If you persist it can
only end in final separation between the North and South.
And in that case, believe it now, as you did not my former
warnings, the whole Northwest will go with the South!

" He waxes more earnest as he approaches this key-note of
his harangues and with an energy and force that makes every
hearer, as his moral nature revolts from the bribe, acknowledge
all the more the splendid force with which the tempter urges
Ins cause, with flashing eye and livid features and extended
hand, he hurls the climax of his threatening argument again
upon the Republican side of the House : 'Believe me, as you
did not the solemn warning of years past, the day which divida-
the North from the South y the self-same day decrees eternal
divorce between the West and the East!' ....

" The group of Republicans standing in the open space
before the Clerk's desk increases ; they crowd down the aisles
among the opposition and cluster around the speaker as ho
resumes. Even the eternal chattering in the ladies' galleries
lias ceased, the seats are all crowded, the correspondents and
reporters have been attracted by the interest of the scene, and
for a wonder the reporters' gallery is full and attentive.

" An effort is making on the floor to get a joint session of

15

226 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

the Military and Naval Committees, to hear a proposition from
Cyrus W. Field, backed by the Secretary of War, about a sub
marine cable to New Orleans. One member after another flatly
refuses to obey the call of the Chairman and leave the debate.
The eminent telegrapher waits an hour in the Committee-room,
and finally gets to see three out of fourteen members. Such is
the interest the discussion of treason's argument is arousing.

" The speaker resumed : i There is not one drop of rain
that falls over the whole vast expanse of the Northwest that
does not find its home in the bosom of the Gulf. We must and
we will follow ity with travel and trade ; not by treaty, but by
right; freely, peaceably and without restriction or tribute, under
the same Government and flag ! '

" It is eloquently spoken, and none are more willing to con-
it than his opponents

" He has spoken over an hour and a quarter, and has accom
plished that rare feat, compelled the closest attention of the
most disorderly deliberative body in the world, from the begin
ning to the end

" There is a gradual relaxation, a sudden humming of con
versation again on the floor and through the galleries. The
Democrats and Border State men, with faces wreathed in
smiles, crowd around their champion with their congratula
tions. At a single step the shunned and execrated Yallandig-
ham has risen to the leadership of their party. Deny it, as
some of them still may, henceforth it is accomplished.77

This speech was received by the Democrats everywhere with
unbounded admiration, and even the Republicans acknow
ledged its great ability. The Boston Courier, one of the ablest
of the Eastern papers, thus speaks of it : —

" It is an extremely able and a very honest speech. No
one can read it and help believing that Mr. Yallandigham is
a brave and honest man ; and the speech itself affords irre
sistible evidence that it is his unfaltering devotion to the
Union and the Constitution which has led those less loyal to
stigmatise him as a secessionist and a traitor. His opinions
will answer for themselves ; but for its historical value and its
strong grasp of the future, the speech ought to have the widest
circulation.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 227

The Cincinnati Enquirer, publishing it on the 20th, says : —

" We could not publish anything more valuable or inter
esting than this powerful speech, one of the ablest ever deliv
ered in the halls of Congress, even in its palmiest days of
glory. It is a speech which would add to the fame of a Clay,
or a Webster, or a Burke, or a Chatham. In style it is worthy
of Macaulay's finest composition. It is a speech that ought to
be read by every citizen of the United States, and especially by
those wrho have been politically opposed to Mr. Vallandigham.
They will discover in it a force of reasoning, a richness of
historical illustration, a depth of patriotism, that they can not
but recognise and admire in the fullest sense. This speech
must produce a great effect upon public opinion in favor of the
stopping of this war, and the concluding of an armistice."

Three days later the same paper contained the following : —

" Xo speech has been made in Congress for years that has
produced so great an effect in political circles, has been so uni
versally admired for surpassing ability, for genuine and manly
patriotism, for its wise statesmanship, as that of Mr. Vallan
digham It is a valuable and undying contribution to Ameri
can Congressional eloquence, and will raise its author to a high
place among the greatest men of the country."

Such was the tone of the Democratic press throughout the
country. In most of the Democratic papers the speech was
published in whole or in part, and in pamphlet form it was
circulated by tens of thousands.

A few sentences of this speech we present, peculiarly appro
priate to these times of sycophancy to power, and unparalleled
dishonesty, fraud and corruption in high places : —

"I had rather that my right arm were plucked from itp
socket and cast into eternal burnings, than, with my convictions,
to have thus defiled my soul with the guilt of moral perjury.
Sir, I was not taught in that school which proclaims that l all
is fair in politics/ I loathe, abhor, and detest the execrable
maxim. I stamp upon it. No State can endure a single

228 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

generation whose public 'men practise it. Whoever teaches it
is a corruptcr of youth. What we most want in these times,
and at- all times, is honest and independent public men. That.
man who is dishonest in politics is not honest at heart in any
thing ; and sometimes moral cowardice is dishonesty. Do
right, and trust to God and truth, and the people. Perish
office, perish honors, perish life itself; but do the thing that
is riglit, and do it like a man. I did it. Certainly, Sir, I
could not doubt what he must suffer who dare defy the opinions
and passions, not to say the madness, of twenty millions of
people. Had I not read history ? Did I not know human
nature ? But I appealed to TIME • and right nobly hath the
avenger answered me."

Mr. Vallandigham rejected utterly at that time, both in pri
vate letters and interviews, and in his speech, the idea -of final
separation as the object of a cessation of hostilities; and in this
he uttered but the almost universal sentiment of the Demo
cratic party. He believed that the Administration was then
willing to make peace upon the basis of such separation, and
only desired to have their opponents commit themselves to
the same policy, thereby sharing the odium and relieving
them in part from the responsibility of the act. Failing in
this, they rallied late in January, and resolving upon a more
" vigorous prosecution of the war " than ever before, resorted
at last to a formal suspension of the habeas corpus, an indem
nity to the President and all under him, and the Conscription.
At the same time a formidable effort was made to revive the
scheme of a new " conservative " party to supersede the Demo
cratic organization and oppose radicalism, but support the war.
This time the movement was to comprehend a portion of the
Abolition or Eepublican party ; and chief among its leaders
-were to be Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward. Mr.Val-
.landigham could at that time obtain no opportunity to address

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 229

a. public meeting in New York ; but being invited to speak in
Newark, New Jersey, very near to the former city, he gladly
availed himself of the occasion to denounce, in the severest
terms, the proposed arrangement. Whatever may have been
the effect of the speech, it is certain that the movement utterly
failed.

On the 23d of February the Conscription Bill was under
consideration in the House, and a debate ensued which for
boldness, eloquence, and power has seldom been equalled. The
bill had passed the Senate at midnight, in the absence of those
who were opposed to it, who had not an opportunity even to
record their votes against it. It was intended that there
Should be no debate upon it in the House, but the minority
resolved that they would be heard, and by parliamentary tact
and skill they secured discussion. Crittenden, Pendleton,
Voorhees, Biddle, and others put forth their whole strength.
Mr.. Yallandigham addressed the House at night in a speech
unprepared, and without a single note, except the paging of the
extracts which he read, but which, in the language of Mr.
Yoorhees, "held the House spell-bound," many upon both
sides regarding it as his ablest Congressional effort, suspassing
in argumentative force and concise vehemence his speech of the
14th of January. The bill finally passed, but not until it had
been stripped of some of its most objectionable features.

This was Mr. Vallandigham's last speech in Congress, and
,nobly did it close his Congressional career. He concluded
thus : —

" Sir, I have clone now with my objections to this bill. I
have spoken as though the Constitution survived, and was still
the supreme law of the land. But if, indeed, there be no Con-

230 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

stitution any longer, limiting and restraining the men in power,
then there is none binding upon the States or the people. God
forbid ! We have a Constitution yet, and laws yet. To them
I appeal. Give us our rights ; give us known and fixed laws ;
give us the judiciary ; arrestfus only upon due process of law;
give us presentment or indictment by grand juries, speedy and
public trial, trial by jury and at home; tell us the nature and
cause of the accusation, confront us with witnesses ; allow us
witnesses on our behalf, and the assistance of counsel for our
defence ; secure us in our persons, our houses, our papers, and
our effects ; leave us arms, not for resistance to law or against
rightful authority, but to defend ourselves from outrage and vio
lence ; give us free speech and a free press ; the right peaceably
to assemble ; and above all, free and undisturbed elections and
the ballot : take our sons, take our money, our property, take
all else, and we will wait a little, till at the time and in the
manner appointed by Constitution and law, we shall eject you
from the trusts you have abused, and the seats of power you
have dishonored, and other and better men shall reign in your
stead."

CHAPTER XI.

THE ARREST.

ON the 4th of March, 1863, the 37th Congress adjourned.
In compliance with invitations previously received, Mr. Yal-
landigham went Eastward to spend a week or two in that
section before returning home. He arrived in Philadelphia on
the afternoon of March the 5th ; and from the Inquirer, a Re
publican paper, we take the following account of his reception,
and of the speech he made that evening : —

" Clement L. Yallandigham, Democratic member of Con
gress for Ohio, arrived in this city yesterday afternoon and
engaged rooms at the Girard House. His arrival was the
occasion of a grand Democratic celebration, which took place
last evening in front of the Girard House.

"Early in the evening the members of the Democratic
Central Club assembled at the Club Room, on Walnut street,,
below Sixth, and formed in procession, headed by Beck's
band, proceeding from thence to the hotel, where Mr. Yallan
digham was serenaded by the band. Previous to the appear
ance of Mr. Yallandigham, the street in front of the hotel
presented a brilliant and enthusiastic appearance.

" The street was one blaze of fire- works, and the yells and
cheers of the assembled crowd were deafening. On the appear
ance of Mr. Yallandigham these manifestations were increased,
and continued for some time. After order had been in some
measure restored, Mr. Charles W. Carrigan stepped forward
and introduced Mr. Yallandigham to the crowd in attendance
as a white man and a fearless champion of the rights of the
people, and a steadfast supporter of the Democratic party.
Mr. Yallandigham spoke as follows :

232 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" He said he was present more to acknowledge the unex
pected and enthusiastic greeting than to discuss public ques
tions. He thanked the audience for the reception tendered
him, and hoped that they would ( hear him for his cause, and
be silent that they might hear/ He proclaimed himself a true
Union man, as he always had been, and he intended to be so.
He had differed with the Administration only as to the mode
of preserving the Union. . He had differed with them only in
his support of the Constitution.

" The Administration had yet to learn that there were two
Union parties in the country, if they really were for the Union
as it was and the Constitution as it is. The. only true, uncon
ditional Union party was the Democratic" party, which had
maintained and preserved the Union for over sixty years; The
Administration must be taught that men have a right to differ
as to the .mode in. which the Union is to be maintained. If, in
the discussion of this question, the Democrats were defeated at
the ballot-box, they. would submit, and would require the same
from their opponents, if beaten.

"The speaker argued that the Federal Government was
supreme within its iimits, as were also the State Governments.
Each should be obeyed to the extent of its authority. That
the spe'aker was' a Union man was not what had been said of
him by a lying press, and he rejoiced that the time had come
when he could vindicate himself from the malicious charges
which" had 'been hurled against him. Until the Democratic
party get into power, which would be the case in March 1865,
they would exercise the right to adopt every means tending to
the restoration of the Union.

" The great plan which the speaker advocated to this end
was to call ~a convention of all the States, which, he argued,
would resuK in a restoration of the Union and the perpetuation
of :peace: In the meantime there will have to be a cessation
of the charges of treason made against the Democratic party.
... He continued at some length, arguing the propriety of
calling a convention of the States for effecting a solution of the
difficulties in which this country is involved."

The; concourse in front of the hotel during the delivery of
his speech was very large, and at the close of the meeting he
was handsomely entertained by the " Philadelphia Club " at

LIFE O.F CLEMENT L: VALLAKDIGIJAM, 233

their rooms ; and the cordiality with which he was received,
and the kindness with which he was treated during his sojourn
in the city, were to him exceedingly gratifying.

The next day he went to New York, and on Saturday
evening delivered a long, able, and eloquent speech before the
Democratic Union Association at their headquarters in Broad
way. Though the evening was most inclement and stormy,
the room was packed to its utmost capacity. After being in
troduced by Mr. Luke F. Cozans, President of the Association,
and greeted with loud and protracted cheers, he spoke as
follows : —

" Gentlemen : — I was not aware till after my arrival here a
few 'hours ago of the stereotyped threats that this man or
that man representing certain sentiments should not be permit
ted to speak in the city of New York. If I had known it, I
probably would have taken an earlier train and been here a few
hours in advance. [" Good," and applause.] The spirit of those
before me sufficiently proves the time for all that has gone by.
I am here to speak to-night regardless of all threats [" Good,
good/'' and cheers] ; and if there 'were any disagreeable conse
quences to' follow, regardless of those consequences. [Loud
cheers.] But there are none; and 1 am here to speak just such
things as in my judgment a true patriot and a free man ought
to speak. [Enthusiastic cheers.] I accepted the invitation
very cordially to address this club, and came at no inconsider
able personal sacrifice, because the exigencies of the times which
are again upon us with threatening aspect, not only justify, but
in my judgment demand of every public man that all personal
considerations should be laid aside for the public good. [Ap-
pMuse.] I know as well as any man the pressure that is now
made" upon the Democratic party with the vain hope of crush
ing it out. These men who are in power at Washington,
extending their agencies out through the cities and States of the
Union, and threatening to re-inaugurate a reign of terror, may
as well know that' we comprehend precisely their purpose. I
ti'eg leave to assure you that it cannot and will not be permitted
to succeed. [Applause.] The people of this country endorsed

234 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

it once because they were told that it .was essential to the speedy
suppression or crushing out of the rebellion and the restoration
of the Union ; and they so loved the Union of these States that
they would consent even for a little while, under false and now
broken promises of the men in power, to surrender those liber
ties in order that that great object might be, as it was promised,
accomplished speedily. They have been deceived ; instead of
crushing out the rebellion, the effort has been to crush out the
spirit of liberty. [Cheers.]

" The conspiracy of those in power is not so much for a
vigorous prosecution of the war against rebels in the South as
against the democracy in peace at home. [Cheers.] And now
no effort, however organised, premeditated or well concerted,
to restore those times through which we have passed, and
which will stand upon the pages of history as the darkest of
all the annals of America — no effort, I say, will be permitted
to succeed, and the sooner they comprehend that the better, and
the less trouble there will be in the land. [Applause.] We
were born to an inheritance of freedom ; the Constitution came
to us from our fathers ; it guaranteed to us rights and liberties
older than the Constitution itself — God-given, belonging to
the people, belonging to men, because God made them free —
and we do not mean to surrender one jot or tittle of those
rights and liberties. ["Amen," and loud cheers.] Yet nothing
but the consciousness that just at this moment men desperately
wicked have deliberately determined to make one last expiring
effort to break down the reaction set in from the people against
the policy of this Administration, against this party in power,
and the conviction that it was necessary to meet that instantly
and everywhere, could have induced me to be here to-night,
wearied and exhausted as I am with the labors of Congress,
which, thank God, has just expired [Laughter and cheers],
absent from home for many months, my own business ne
glected, the politics of my own State allowed to pass by for
the present — nothing, I say, but these considerations -could
have induced me to be present to-night ; but I rejoice that I
am here, and look in the face, and am looked in the face by
freemen — men whose eyes speak the determination of their
hearts to meet this crisis with whatsoever exigency this Ad
ministration may choose to make necessary. [Applause.] I
am no revolutionist ; I am in all 'things as far as practicable a

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 235

peace man, and want peace and order in this country. I am
ready to submit to many things that I think had better not be
attempted, just so long as assemblages of the people, and
the ballot, which are the great correctives of evil, and which
were intended by our fathers to be the machinery by which
peaceable revolution should be accomplished in the admini
stration of government, remain untouched ; but I say to the
Administration : i Lay not your hands at the foundation of
the fabric of our liberties ; you may lop off a branch here and
there, and it will survive ; we may tolerate that for the sake
of a greater good hereafter ; but whenever you reach forth your
hand to strike at the very vitals of public liberty, then the
people must and will determine in their capacity what remedy
the occasion demands.' [Cheers.] But we have not come to
that ; I have seen enough already to satisfy me upon that sub
ject, not in the West only, about which there can be no doubt,
but in Philadelphia, the most terror-ridden city in the Union
eighteen months ago. The spirit of the men born within the
sound of Independence bell yet survives in all its grandeur
and its majesty [applause] ; and I think I can answer, not
merely from what I see here to-night, but from what elsewhere
in other ways I have learned, that the spirit of the people of
New York is not behind."

After referring to some of the arbitrary measures of the
men in power, and their infringements on the rights of the
people, he continues: —

" Now, all this, infamous and execrable as it is, is enough
to make the blood of the coldest man who has one single
appreciation in his heart of freedom, to boil. [Loud applause.]
Still, so long as they leave to us free assemblages, free discus
sion and a free ballot, I do not want to see, and will not
encourage or countenance any other mode of getting rid of it.
[" That's it/7 and cheers.] We are ready to try these questions
in that way ; but I have only to repeat what I said a little
while ago, that when the attempt is made to take away that
other right, and the only instrumentality peaceably of reform
ing and correcting abuses — free assemblages, free speech, free
ballot and free elections — that then the hour will have arrived
when it will be the duty of freemen to find some other and

236 LIFE OF • CLEMENT - L. VALLANDIGHAM.

efficient mode of defending their liberties. [Loud and pro
tracted cheering, the whole audience rising to their feet.] Our
fathers did not inaugurate the Bevolution of 1776, they did
not endure the, sufferings and privations of the seven years'
war, to escape from the mild and moderate control of a consti
tutional monarchy like England, to be at last in the third
generation subjected to a tyranny equal to that of any upon
the face of the globe. [Loud applause.] Now, Sir, I repeat
that it will not in my judgment come to this. I do not believe
that this Administration will undertake to deprive us of that
right. I do not think it will venture for one moment to at
tempt to prevent, under any pretext whatever, the assembling
together of the people for the fair discussion of their measures
and policy. I do not believe 'it, because it seems to me with all
the folly and madness that have been manifested in these high
places, it seems to me they must foresee what will inevitably
follow. , Believing this, and believing that the best way of
averting the crisis is to demand inexorably and resolutely, with
the firmness and dignity of freemen, these rights, and let them
know distinctly that we do not mean to surrender them, I am
here to-night to proclaim it just as I have. [Loud applause.]"

The following is the closing paragraph of his speech : —

"I make no threats — no wise man ever did. [Cheers.]
I never yield to threats, therefore I expect no one else to yield;
but, as I have said, in the spirit of warning, as one who would
avert a struggle which this people will make to maintain their
liberties, I have spoken, and I wrould that my voice could pene
trate that most impenetrable of all recesses, the precincts of the
White House, and that the men who are surrounded by the par
asites of power — the flatterers who are the vermin of courts,
with that legion of contractors and place-men who speak not the
truth and represent not the people — that a voice from the
people could reach their ears, and that the voice being heard
might be heeded. Then shall we escape the convulsions which
have visited other countries ; the scenes of revolutions in former
times will not be enacted in our midst, but peaceably and
quietly, under the Constitution and in accordance with law, the
changes of administration successively year after year will go
on in this country, which before God I believe, and it is the
faith and hope of my heart, is destined yet once again in peace,

LIFE OF CLEMENT Le VALLANDIGHAM. 237

happiness and prosperity to realise that most splendid of visions
that ever fell upon human eyes — one Union, one 'Constitution,
one Destiny."

From New York city Mr. Yallandigham proceeded to
Albany, and after conferring with leading men of the party, on
the. state of the, country, passed into Connecticut, and made a
speech or two in the canvass then in progress preparatory tc
the approaching election. He then turned his face homeward,
and arriving at Dayton on the 13th of March, received a most
cordial and enthusiastic welcome. The account of it is thus
given in the Dayton 'Empire:-— j

"Hon.. C. L. Yallandigham arrived at his home in this city
at 4 J yesterday p. M., and although but two days7 notice was had
'of his coming, received one of the greatest ovations ever given
to any man in Ohio. Long before the hour of arrival of the
train on which he was expected, his constituents began to flock
to the depdt by thousands. ' It seemed as if every man, woman
and child' in the District had come out to do honor to this
champion ' advocate of Constitutional right. Two bands of
music enlivened the occasion, while a cannon belched forth with
its thunder-tones of welcome, awakening the valley of the
Miami as it was seldom if ever awakened before. Presently
the whistling of the locomotive was heard, and as the train
neared the depot, the thousands of persons rushed forward, all
eager to catch the first sight of the man who has so nobly, gal
lantly and fearlessly represented the white man's interest in the
Congress that has just adjourned. The crowd was so dense
that it was almost impossible for Mr. Yallandigham to reach
the carriage which was in readiness to convey him to the Court
House, from the steps of which he was to speak. Having at
length been almost carried to his carriage, and being seated, lie
was hailed with deafening cheers, while the cannon responded
with thirty-four rounds. The procession being formed, pre
ceded by the Marshals and bands of music, proceeded to the
Court House, where the reception speech was made by Hon.
David A. Houk, who said : —

" Honored Sir: — I have been commissioned by your friends

238 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of this city and county, and throughout the 3rd Congressional
District, to extend to you upon this occasion, and in their
behalf, their most cordial and friendly greeting, and to bid you
a hearty welcome upon your return to the bosom of your home
and of your friends.

" There is perhaps no public man in the country who has
more reason to be proud of the devotion of his hosts of friends
than yourself. This vast assemblage, Sir, by their very
presence here, speak in a language far more potent and signifi
cant than any words I can utter, their heartfelt approval and
commendation of your course as their representative in the
councils of the nation. For you have been a peace man, Sir,
and we honor you for it. You proclaimed to the people when
this most unnatural, and in the language of the President, this
unnecessary and injurious civil war was about to be inaugurated,
that a conflict of arms would but widen the breach, that a
government founded upon the principle of consent — a free
government — could never be maintained by force. You had
learned your lessons of wisdom from the principles of the
fathers who conceived and established our system of govern
ment. These principles, founded in eternal truth at the very
inception of the great political organization to which you and
I have the honor of belonging, were engrafted upon its' creed.

"You, Sir, have been a faithful sentinel upon the watch-
tower of public liberty ; and in the darkest hours of the night,
and when the storms of popular fury raged most fiercely, have
kept the light of hope burning, and have promptly, fearlessly,
and resolutely sounded the alarm upon every approach to
danger.

" An ancient Jewish king, upon a memorable occasion, as we
are informed by the Inspired Book, called all the princes of
Israel, the captains, the stewards of all the substance of his
household and of his children, and all the valiant men, unto
Jerusalem. And when he had assembled them about him, he
stood up upon his feet and said : ' Hear, my brethren, and my
people ; as for me, I had it in my heart to build a house of rest
for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of
our God, and had made ready for the building; but God said
unto me, Thou shalt not build a house for my name, because
thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood/

" WJien the shattered Temple of Constitutional Liberty comes

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 239

to be reconstructed in this country, it will not be done by the men
of blood.

" You, Sir, have not been unmindful of these Divine admo
nitions, and of the promises of the Gospel of Peace as uttered
by Him who spake as man never spake — ' Blessed are the
peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God.7

" You, Sir, may well feel truly thankful that your counsels
have contributed no aid or encouragement to the plunging of
the country into this fearful and bloody civil strife. The blood
of the 300,000 victims that have been sacrificed will fall upon
other heads than yours.

" In view of the valuable and distinguished services which
you have rendered as the Representative of this people, and of
your bold, able and manly vindication of the principles of free
government and of popular liberty, whenever and wherever
they have been assailed, regardless alike of the frowns of tyrants
and usurpers, and the slanders, vituperation and abuse of their
venal presses and minions, permit me, Sir, in conclusion, to say
that we have thought this public occasion appropriate and
fitting to give expression of our gratitude to you for the faith
ful manner in which you have performed your trust.

" With the earnest wish, Sir, that your life may be spared
for many long years of future iisefulness, I extend the right
hand of fellowship, and again bid you a cheerful and hearty
welcome home.

" After acknowledging in fitting terms the cordial and
enthusiastic reception, he referred to the struggle now going on
between despotic power and liberty, and of the determination
of the Democratic party to maintain free speech, a free press,
id the ballot-box at all hazards. He was for obedience to all
laws, and for requiring the men in power also to obey them.
He would try all questions of Constitution and law be*fore the
courts, and then enforce the decrees of the courts. He was for
trying all political questions by the ballot. He would resist
no law by force ; he would endure almost every other wrong as
long as free discussion, free assemblages of the people and a free
ballot remained ; but the moment they were attacked, he would
resist. We had a right to change Administrations, and policies
and parties, not by forcible revolution, but by the ballot-box ;

240 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and this right must be maintained at all hazards. He would
try the question of the constitutionality and validity of the
Conscription Act in court, and argue its inexpediency and
odiousness before the people, but would have no resistance to it.

" He closed by a touching allusion to the assassination of
his friend 'Bollmeyer, the first martyr in the cause of Con^
stitutional liberty. He missed from that vast assemblage one
familiar face, one manly form. That form once possessed as
manly, as noble a heart as God ever gave to man. That form
now mouldered beneath the clods of the valley, but his memory
was still dear, and would ever remain so to the friends of the
Union and of law and order.

" Mr. Vallandigham descended from the steps, from where
he had spoken, entered his carriage, and was escorted by the
crowd to his residence."

The following additional account is from the same paper : —

" The reception of Mr. Vallandigham at the depot last
evening was one of the most enthusiastic affairs we ever wit
nessed. 'Several thousand people — mostly personal and politi
cal friends of the distinguished Congressman — assembled at
the depot some time before the arrival -of the train, while the
cannon ' awakened the echoes' at frequent intervals. When
the train arrived, and Mr. V.' made his appearance on the
platform, the cheers that greeted him left no doubt about the
sincerity of the welcome extended to him by the people on his
return home The shouts were really deafening; and the
waving of *white handkerchiefs from hundreds of fair hands
gave unmistakable evidence of the interest the ladies felt in the
safe return of the gentleman whom they had assembled to
honor.

" The Reception Committee were relieved of their office by
the crowd, who took up Mr. V. on their shoulders, and bore
him, amid the shouts and congratulations of his fellow-citizens,
to the carriage awaiting him. The procession was then formed
by Marshals Egry and Kline, and the crowd, preceded by the
Regimental Band, and followed by the Salem Band, proceeded
to the Court House. The side- walks were crowded all the way
up from the depot, and demonstrations of welcome were made
by the people all along the streets. At the corner of Main
and Third, Mr. V. was conducted to the area in front of the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 241

Court House. As we have already stated, (an account of the
meeting at that point is given elsewhere. After Mr. V. had
concluded his remarks, he was again conducted to the carriage,
and the procession again formed, and accompanied him home,
when he was carried into the house. Altogether, it was by far
the most hearty and enthusiastic welcome ever extended to any
one in this city."

On his return home Mr. Yallandigham found his own
State, and Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois formed into a mili
tary, district and placed under the command of General A. E.
Burnside, a rash, weak, and ignorant man, who, evincing at
the battle of Fredericksburg his total incapacity to contend
with armed rebels at the South, had been sent to control un
armed Democrats in the West — men as true to the Union as
he was, but who claimed the privilege of dissenting from the
policy of the Administration, and freely expressing their views
on public aifairs. He found the Constitution ignored, the laws
disregarded, and in their stead military orders of the most des
potic kind which the people were expected implicitly to obey.
One of these was Order No. 38, threatening severe punishment
to those who should be guilty of implied treason ! Another was
Order No. 15, prohibiting the people to keep and bear arms;
and a third, No. 9, prohibiting any criticism whatever of the
civil or military policy of the Administration. To such gross
violations of the provisions of the Constitution, such palpable
infringements of the rights of the people, Mr. Yallandigham
could not patiently submit, and at various meetings which he
addressed during the months of March and April he denounced
them in unsparing terms, and declared his intention, in the
future as in the past, to criticise and condemn whatever was
wrong in the course and conduct of the men in power. He
16

242 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

believed that it was their intention utterly to subdue the
spirit of the people, to crush out freedom of the press, freedom
of speech, and freedom of assembling together to discuss polit
ical subjects ; and this despotism he was determined to resist
at all hazards, declaring in one of his speeches, " If it be
really the design of the Administration to force this issue, then
come arrest, come imprisonment, come exile, come death itself!
I am ready here to-night to meet it."

On the 21st of March a very large meeting was held in
Hamilton. Mr. Vallandigham was present, and commented
freely and severely on Order No. 15, which had just been
issued. His remarks will sufficiently indicate the character of
that order.

"I will not speak disrespectfully of Colonel Carrington;
he and I served pleasantly together in the militia of Ohio on
the peace establishment [laughter], and I found him always
gentlemanly in his deportment. I am glad to learn that he'is
still so regarded at Indianapolis. How could he have issued
such an order ? I know he is ' great * on general orders ; but
such a one passes my comprehension. I am sure he cannot
want to do wrong, for he must know that two years hence,
under the legislation of the late Congress, a Democratic Presi
dent or Secretary of War — and who knows but I may be
Secretary of War myself? [laughter and cheers] — can strike
his name from the roll without even a why or a wherefore.
It would be well for all ambitious military gentlemen just now
to recollect this small fact and confine themselves strictly to
their legal and Constitutional military duties, and to allow
others to enjoy their opinions and civil rights unmolested.

".But to the order. Here it is : —

" * HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES FORCES, )
' ' INDIANAPOLIS, IND., March 17, 1863. \

U{ General Order No. 15.

" ' 1 . The habit of carrying arms upon the person has
greatly increased/ Well, so it has, and in times of threats and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM. 243

danger like these, it ought to, and in spite of all orders it will
increase. 'And is prejudicial to peace and good order/ Sir,
restore to us peace and good order, and we will lay aside all
arms, and be glad of the chance. [Great applause.] ' As well
as a violation of civil law.7 I deny it ; but if so, who gave
authority to this gentleman to lecture on civil law in a military
order ? ' Especially at this time it is unnecessary, impolitic and
dangerous/ Was ever the like read or heard of before ? ' At
this time ' — at a time when Democrats are threatened with
violence everywhere ; when mobs are happening every day, and
Democratic presses destroyed ; w,hen secret societies are being
formed all over the country to stimulate to violence ; when at
hotels and in depots, and in railroad cars and on the street
corners Democrats are scowled at and menaced, a military order
coolly announces that it is unnecessary, impolitic, and danger
ous to carry arms ! And who signs this order ? ' Henry B.
Carrington, Colonel 18th U. JS. Infantry, Commanding.' Com
manding what? The 18th U. S. Infantry, or at most the
United States forces of Indiana — but not the people, the free
white American citizens of American descent not in the military
service. That is the extent of his authority, and no more.

" And now, Sir, I hold in my hand a general order also — ^an
order binding on all military men and all civilians alike — on
colonels and generals and commanders-in-chief, State and Fed
eral. [Applause.] Hear it : ' The right of +he people TO KEEP
AND BEAR ARMS shall not be infringed.7 By order of the States
and people of the United States, George Washington command
ing. [Great cheering.] That, Sir, is General Order No. 1 —
the Constitution of the United States. [Loud cheers.] Who
now is to be obeyed — Carrington or Washington?

" But I have another ' order ' yet. ' The people have a right
to bear arms for their defence and security, and the military
shall be in strict subordination to the civil power/ [Renewed
cheering.] That, Sir, is General Order No, 2 — the Constitu
tion of Ohio, by order of the people of Ohio. Here, Sir, are
our warrants for keeping and bearing arms, and by the blessing
of God we mean to do it ; and if the men in power undertake
in an evil hour to demand them of us, we will return the Spar
tan answer, ' Come and take them/

" But Colonel Carrington's order proceeds : — i The Major-
General commanding the department of the Ohio/ • Command-

244 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ing whom, again I ask ? Only the military forces of the
department of Ohio, but not a single citizen in it. ' Having
ordered that all sales of arms, powder, lead, and percussion
caps be prohibited until further orders/ Where, Sir, is the
law for all that ? Are we a conquered province, governed by
military proconsuls ? And so then has it come to this, that
the Constitution iii now suspended by a military general order
No. 15! Sir, the constitutional right to keep and bear arms
carries with it the right to buy and sell arms ; and fire-arms
are useless without powder, lead, and percussion caps. It is
our right to have them, and we mean to obey general orders
Nos. 1 and 2, instead of No. 15. [Loud applause.]

" But I read further : — ( And that any violation of said
order will be followed by the confiscation of the goods sold,
and the seizure of the stock of the vendor/ Is the man de
ranged ? Confiscation indeed ! Why, Sir, the men who are
clothed now with a little brief authority seem to think of
nothing except taxation, emancipation, confiscation, conscrip
tion, and every other word ending in t— i— o— n. [Laughter.]
But General Order No. 1 says, ' No man shall be deprived of
property without due process of law ; ' and General Order
No. 2 says i private property shall ever be held inviolate, and
every person for an injury done him in his land, goods, person
or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law.7 And
though the writ of habeas corpus may be suspended, the writs
of replevin and injunction cannot be. [Cries of " good, good."]

"But Order No. 15 proceeds : ' And said order having been
extended by the Major-General to cover the entire department,
is hereby promulged/ Yes, promulged — 'for immediate ob
servance throughout the State/ Can military insolence go
further ? Is this the way the military is to be in strict sub
ordination to the civil power ? And does the Colonel com
manding the 18th United States Infantry thus undertake to
promulge a general order suspending or abrogating the Con
stitution of the United States and of Indiana ? Are we living
in America or Austria ?

"And now the fitting commentary on all this attempt to dis
arm the white man, while public arms are being put into the
hands of the negro, is in the second section ®f this general
order No. 15, alluding to the recent destruction of a Democratic
printing-press, by what the Colonel commanding the 18th

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 245

U. S. Infantry, drawing it mild after the fashion of Sairey Gamp,
calls ' a popular demonstration ; ' and yet not one of the per
petrators of this outrage, although soldiers and under military
law, have been punished, nor ever will be. Yet at such a time
of lawless violence it is proposed that the people shall be dis
armed ! Never ! [Loud cheers.] Sir, I repeat now what I
believe to be the true programme for these times : Try every
question of law in your courts, and every question of politics
before the people and through the ballot-box ; maintain your
constitutional rights at all hazards against military usurpation.
Let there be no resistance to law, but meet and repel all mobs
and mob violence by force and arms on the spot. [Great and
continued cheering.] "

About this time he wrote the following letter to Alfred
Sanderson, Esq., of Lancaster, Pa. : —

"DAYTON, OHIO, April 24, 1863.

" My engagements in New York precluded me from accept
ing your invitation and addressing you previous to my return
West. I expect to go East about the 12th of May or 16th of
June, and if I do, I will if possible visit Lancaster going or
coming, and address your Democracy. Indeed, it will give
me great pleasure to comply with your invitation. Should I
be able to come, I will advise you in time.

" Meamvhile let me say that everything depends on keeping
the Democratic party up to the full measure of principle and
sound policy, true to the Constitution, faithful to the Union ,
steadfast to the Government which they constitute, and devoted
to liberty at the hazard of life itself. Truth and reason applied
to these high and sacred objects are the only powers or agencies
left to the Democracy, and by a bold and manly use alone of
them can we succeed in the elections. Everything else is in
the hands of the Abolition party — the Administration.
Through the press, but especially by public meetings and open
and courageous organization, this use is to be made. Good
men individually upon our ticket will not be enough. The
people are not now voting for men, but for ideas, principles,
policies. No public man is worth a rush now unless he repre
sents something besides candidacy for an office. Enthusiasm is

246 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

power — a greater power, especially among the masses, among
workingmen and a rural population, than any agency which
this Administration can bring to bear, whether it be corruption
or force ; but there can be no popular enthusiasm for any one,
above all just in these times of powerful commotion, unless he
is the embodiment, or at least a representative, of some great
principle or cause. And to be effective it must be antagonistic
to some other and opposite principle or cause ; and the stronger
and more direct the antagonism, the better. This is essential
now.

" Last summer and fall the Administration was unsettled,
ostensibly at least, in its policy, and its party therefore more or
less divided. Not so now. It has a policy, and means stead
fastly to adhere to it. Whoever supports the Administration
now, supports its policy. All apology for temporising by the
Democratic party is utterly gone. The Administration Aboli
tion party is thoroughly consolidated, and unquestionably it is
now contending solely for unity and a strong centralised govern
ment through war, and, failing in this, then disunion. And it
will rally to its support all men who from any cause, sentiment,
or interest, are in favor of either the object or the means. Now
the direct antagonism of all this is, union and constitutional
liberty through an honorable peace. And what nobler principle
or idea, what holier cause for the Democratic party to struggle
for? Arguments and appeals without number, the strongest
ever urged, can be arrayed in its support — from religion, from
philosophy, from human nature, politics, history, from the
principles of our form of government, and from the utter and
inevitable failure of all other means of securing that great end.
With all these agencies at our command, an enthusiasm can be
evoked from the hearts of the people before which all opposi
tion will be swept away as by a consuming fire.

"The recent elections throughout the Northwest have
resulted most auspiciously for the Democratic cause, and carry
rejoicing to every patriotic and truly Union heart.
" Very truly,

" C. L. VALLANDIGHAM.
"ALFRED SANDERSON, Esq.'*

On the evening of the 30th of April he addressed a meet
ing in Columbus. A brief account of the meeting and of his
speech we take from the Ohio Statesman of May 2d : —

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 247

" Early on Thursday evening the people began to gather
at the west front of the State House, to hear an address from
Hon. C. L. Vallandigham. Hemmersbach's band came up
and played inspiring national airs. The assembly continued to
increase and soon swelled to twro or three thousand persons, n
goodly proportion of whom were ladies.

"The meeting was organised by the appointment of E. F.
Bingham, Esq., as Chairman. Mr. Vallandigham then pro
ceeded to address the vast assemblage in an eloquent and im
pressive speech of over two hours in length. He made a bold
and manly defence of the right of the people to assemble in
times of peace or war, and to discuss and hear discussed the
policy of any administration, and to approve or condemn the
official acts of any one in civil or military authority.

" Mr. V. declared his unfaltering devotion to the Union of
the States, and that never with his consent should peace be
purchased at the price of disunion. Such, he affirmed, was
the universal sentiment of the Democratic party. He demon
strated that the leaders of the opposite party, while they had
persistently from the beginning of jfche war rejected all measures
for the restoration of peace with the Union, had been ready and
willing to agree to a peace upon terms of disunion. It was
because Democrats would not agree to any settlement of the
great controversy which did not contemplate the restoration of
the Union with all the States in it, and with the rights of all
under the Constitution unimpaired, that they were denounced
by Abolition disunionists as rebels and traitors.

" Many other points were made by Mr. V., to which we
have not space even to allude. During his long speech, quiet
and good order pervaded the entire audience, unbroken, save
by the low murmur of some Abolitionist who retired wounded
from the field, or the loud shouts of approval that frequent!}'
rose from the audience."

On the next day, the first day of May, Mr. Vallandigham
addressed a very large assemblage at Mt. Vernon, and as
this was the occasion on which he made the speech for which
ostensibly he was arrested, we will give a fuller account of the
meeting than would otherwise be necessary ; and for .L£j

248 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

account we are indebted principally to James T. Irvine, Esq.,
one of the secretaries. After speaking of the assemblages of
the people at various places in the fall of 1862 and the spring
of 1863, he says : —

" The meetings I have referred to were purely voluntary
and spontaneous; indeed the Democracy were solicitous for
them all over the State. They proceeded from the people
themselves in their several localities, and were not appointed
or called for by State Central Committees or organizations.
Mr. Vallandigham regarded these demonstrations of popular
opinion as favorable signs of the times — as manifestations of
such an overwhelming popular sentiment in behalf of the old
system of government according to the Constitution and laws
as would oblige the .Lincoln Administration to observe the
established requirements of ' the best government the sun ever
shone upon/ In conversation with friends, including the
writer, Mr. Vallandigham expressed strongly his opinion that
such meetings and keeping 'them up were necessary to main
tain, preserve and perpetuate the spirit of liberty among the
people at large, and thus save it from being utterly destroyed in
this country by the despotism and tyranny of the ruling powers.
And not only Mr. Vallandigham, -but many others of our
leading men believed and held that the vindication, by these
meetings and the speeches addressed to them, of the right of
the people to peaceably assemble and discuss public affairs and
petition for a redress of grievances, was what secured that
right then and thereafter from being forever stricken down.
And it is a conviction in the minds of the Democracy of Ohio
to-day that their manly nomination and support by speech,
press and votes, and with their lives if necessary to an exer
cise of their right to do so, of Mr. Vallandigham for Governor
in 1863, did more than anything since the American Revolution
of 1776 to establish the right of freemen to speak and vote
their opinions on questions of common interest and concern.

" The immense mass-meeting held at Mount Vernon, Ohio,
on May-day, 1863, was not, however, held on Mr Vallan-
digham's suggestion, but at the instance of the Democracy of
Knox County, of which Mount Vernon is the county seat. The
Democratic people of the county called for the meeting with

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 249

one accord. Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, Hon. Geo. H. Pendle-
ton, Hon. S. S. Cox, and many other eminent speakers (includ
ing, I think, Hon. D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana), were specially
invited by the local committee. As the time for the meeting
came near, Mr. Vallandigham found he had made so many
other engagements that it would not be convenient for him to
be at the Mt. Yernon meeting, and this fact came to the know
ledge of the local committee. The members of this committee
felt the keenest disappointment, and in fact alarm, at the
information of Mr. Vallandigham's probable absence. They
knew there would be an immense meeting, that it would be
clamorous for Mr. V. above everybody else, and that they (the
members of the committee) would be severely criticised and
censured for failing to procure Mr. V. as a speaker for the
occasion. There was still another and stronger reason why
Mr. V.'s presence was desired. A certain portion of the citi
zens of the county felt so indignant at the Abolition policy, the
drafts and the arbitrary arrests and imprisonments by the
Administration, that on the advice of indiscreet persons they
were ready for opposition and even resistance of the most
desperate nature. It was the good influence of Mr. Vallan-
digham to caution them against any such imprudence that
made his presence and counsel so desirable and even requisite.
L. Harper, Esq., editor of the Mt. Yernon Democratic Banner,
was therefore sent to meet Mr. Vallandigham at the Neil
House in Columbus to present the circumstances of the case as
above stated, and not to take any refusal from Mr. V. to be
present and make a speech. Mr. Harper took a note to Mr.
V. from the writer of this letter (who was secretary of the
meeting), urging him to come by all means for the reasons
above stated. The consequence of these representations was
that Mr. V. agreed with Mr. Harper to be on hand provided
he was returned to Newark in the evening of the day of the
meeting, so as to take a train from there and reach some other
point in time to fulfil his next engagement. This agreement
was executed accordingly.

" Although I cannot recollect Mr. Vallandigham's words
in his speech to the meeting, I have a distinct impression of
the fact that he counselled the people to be firm but temperate
in their protests against the unwarrantable proceedings of the
men temporarily invested with absolute power, and to trust .to

250 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

the sober second- thought and the might of the people through
the ballot-box to vindicate their true principles and outraged
representatives.

" Other speakers at the meeting used stronger terms of de
nunciation than Mr. V., and hence there was much surprise
that he was singled out for tyrannic vengeance. From the
false allegations of the infamous spies and informers on which
he was arrested, the summary trial by a packed military com
mission, the so-called i conviction contrary to the weight of
evidence, and the sentence" and exile, considered together, the
inference was irresistible, in the minds of his friends at least,
that his removal from before the people, to prepare the way for
the complete intimidation and forcible and fraudulent crush
ing out of the people's views and votes which followed in the
State and Presidential elections of 1863 and 1864, had been
deliberately resolved upon as a political necessity."

In the foregoing statement an important fact is developed
to which we invite special attention. A prominent reason why
the presence of Mr. Vallandigham was especially desired at
this meeting was that he might caution certain persons who,
becoming restive under the oppressions to which they were
subjected, were in danger of breaking out into open resistance.
It was supposed that a caution from him who was well known
for his firmness and courage and determination, would have
weight : and the evidence is that such caution was given ; that
while he exhorted the people to stand firm in defence of their
rights, he at the same time counselled them to be patient and
forbearing, waiting for the " sober second-thought," and look
ing to the ballot-box for a redress of their grievances.

The following account of the meeting we take from the
Democratic Banner of May 9th, published in Mount Vernon :

" Friday, May 1st, 1863, was a proud and glorious day for
the faithful and unconquerable Democracy of old Knox, and
one that will long be remembered by them with high and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 251

patriotic pleasure. Early in the morning the people began to
come to town in wagons, carriages, and on horseback. Be
tween ten and eleven o'clock the processions from the several
townships arrived, and took the places assigned them by the
Marshals. The processions were composed of wagons, car
riages, buggies, &c., filled with people of both sexes and all
ages, and of numerous horsemen. A remarkably large number
of national flags, with all the stars of the Union as it was, on
hickory poles, formed a very prominent and pleasing feature
in each of these processions. A profusion of butternuts and
liberty or copperhead pins, Union badges, and other appropri
ate emblems of Liberty and Union, were also distinguishable
features.

"Between eleven and one o'clock the township processions
were united, and the grand procession filed through the prin
cipal streets of the city, making a splendid display. It v/a.;
from four to five miles in length, and was over two hours in
passing any one point. About 500 wagons, carriages, &c.,
came to town in the township processions, a number of which,
however, dropped out of line before the grand procession was
formed. The Democracy of the city displayed numerous flags
on their private residences and places of business, and the pro
cessions heartily cheered them as they marched by them. The
scene was beautiful and exciting, as well as vast, and caused all
the good and true Union men who witnessed it to rejoice in
their hearts with the fond hope for the salvation of their
country, well knowing that it is by the Democracy that this
most desirable object must and can be accomplished. The
greatest enthusiasm was manifested throughout the entire line
of procession. Cheers upon cheers rent the air in hearty ac
claim. The hearts and consciences of those giving them were
pure and clear, and the sounds were harmonious, peaceful, and
patriotic.

" One of the most noticeable and pleasing incidents of the
procession and meeting, was a very large wagon drawn by six
horses^ from Wayne township, containing thirty-four young
ladies representing the thirty-four States of the Union. The
wagon was tastefully shaded with evergreens, in which the
thirty-four young ladies were embowered.

" The principal stand from which Messrs. Vallandigham,
Cox, and Pendleton spoke, was canopied by large and beautiful

252 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

American flags, and surrounded by various banners and
emblems, all betokening the undying principles of the Demo
cratic party.

" The first speaker introduced to the audience was the bold
and fearless patriot and statesman, Hon. C. L. Yallandighani,
who was received with such a shout of applause as fairly made
the welkin ring. He proceeded to deliver one of the ablest
and most inspiring true Union addresses ever made, in which
he also evinced his unfaltering devotion to Liberty and the
Constitution. Manliness, candor, genuine patriotism, and true
statesmanship were manifested in the speaker throughout. If
any of his lying detractors were present, it must have struck
them with overwhelming force, and caused them to wince with
a sense of their foul slanders. Mr. Y. spoke for about two
hours, and was listened to with the greatest attention, accom
panied with tremendous shouts of applause."

A very interesting account of the meeting in a letter from
Mt.Vernon, dated May 2d, was also published in the Columbus
Crisis. The writer says : —

<e In every point of view it was an unparalleled county meet
ing. Any fair estimate must put its numbers between fifteen
and twenty thousand ! .... It being well known that Mr.
Yallandigham had come, an immediate and general call was
made for him, and he was at once introduced to the vast assem
bly, which saluted him with three hearty cheers. Mr. Yallan
dighani addressed the great multitude of people for about two
hours, making a most able, eloquent, and truly patriotic speech.
It was a noble and glorious effort in behalf of Liberty, Union
and the Constitution, and was listened to with wrapt attention,
interrupted only by frequent enthusiastic responses and applause.
It must have left an ineffaceable impression upon the minds of
all who heard if. He showed and established conclusively
which was the true Union, and which the disunion party, by
tracing the history and proceedings of each from its origin to
the present moment. The contrast between the life-long Union
ism of the Democratic party, and the original and continuous
disunionism of the Abolition party, wTas so glaring and true,
that an Abolitionist with any degree of conscience must have

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 253

felt confounded and abashed at the recital. . . . Mr. V. spoke
in words of burning eloquence of the arbitrary measures and
monarchical usurpations of the Administration, the disgraceful
surrender of the rights and liberties of the people by the last
infamous Congress, and the conversion of the Government into
a despotism. No candid man, after hearing Mr.Vallandigham,
can for a moment doubt his sincerity and patriotism. These
attributes of the man stand out in bold prominence, and are so
palpable as not to be drawn in question by any honest man of
common sense.

" It being apparent during the delivery of Mr. Vallan-
digham's speech that it was quite impossible for even his
strong and clear voice to reach the edges of the crowd, besides
which Main street for several squares below was blocked with
people, it was proposed to organise another meeting at the
corner of Main and Vine streets, which was gladly accepted.
A large meeting was there convened. This second meeting being
found insufficient to accommodate the immense number of people,
a third large meeting was organised farther down Main street,
in front of the Franklin House. In the evening, about eight
o'clock, still another large meeting, a considerable proportion of
which was composed of ladies, filled the spacious Court-room. n

Such, somewhat abridged, are the accounts of the great
meeting at Mount Vernon on the first day of May, 1863.
These accounts were written at the time, before any arrest was
made, or suspicion that any would be made, for acts done or
words spoken on that memorable occasion. And taking them
to be true, as they most unquestionably are, what was the spirit,
what was the character of those who composed the meeting ?
They were true patriots, loving the Union, supporting the
Constitution, obedient to the laws — never for a moment sus
pecting, while they marched that day in procession, or stood
before the speaker's stand, with the flag of their country wav
ing over their heads, and the fires of patriotism glowing in
their hearts, that they were guilty of any offence for which

254 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

they could be called to account in a land that professed to be
free, and by a party accustomed to boastingly blazon on their
banners, "Free soil, FREE SPEECH, free men ! " And so of the
speakers who addressed them — Vallandigham, Cox, Pendleton,
Kinney, Follet, Reamy, and others ; so far from being conscious
of any wrong, they felt that as sentinels on the watch-tower of
liberty they were performing a solemn duty in sounding the
alarm and warning the people of approaching danger, firmly
believing that " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty/7 and
clearly seeing that liberty was imperilled by constant encroach
ments on the part of the Executive and military satraps under
him on the constitutional rights of the people.

The day after the meeting at Mt. Vernon Mr. Vallandigham
returned home, and immediately heard rumors of his intended
arrest. Such rumors he had often heard before. To an arrest
on process from legal authority he did not object ; nay more,
he would have been pleased to appear before a civil tribunal
and answer to any charges that might be brought against him.
But a forcible, illegal, military arrest he was determined to
repel, and when on a former occasion he had reason to appre
hend it, he had made preparation to resist by thoroughly
arming himself and stationing armed guards of his friends
within his house and without ; and for weeks at a time he sat
up all night or lay down in his day-clothes in readiness to
meet the minions of despotism, should they attempt to violate
the sanctity of his dwelling. In a speech made on the 14tli
of the previous February in Newark, New Jersey, he thus
refers to his feelings at that period : —

" Have any of you known that most terrible of all sensa
tions, haunting you, walking with you, resting with you — the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 255

apprehension of being arrested? Before God I never have
been guilty of any offence against the laws of my country,
or the laws written by a higher power — except through the
frailties of human nature; but I have learned in my own
person what of all sensations is the most horrible and oppres
sive — the fear of arrest. I knew it when night after night
in my own house — which one of the noblest of Englishmen,
and which my father told me, which the Constitution of my
country told me, was my castle — when night after night,
from the setting of the sun, when the gray star-light
gathered around that which ought to have been a peaceful and
undisturbed home, until day dawned, I watched in pain for
every footfall upon the pavement and the sound of every
carriage that rumbled along the street, lest some execrable
minion should dare to attempt to cross the threshold of that
castle. And it was not in Austria that that happened, not in
Russia, not in old Rome under Nero or Caligula, but in the
United States of America, under Abraham Lincoln."

As from day to day the rumors to which we have referred
became more rife, the friends who in former times had nobly
stood guard in and around his dwelling again proffered their
services, but he declined. There had been so many false
alarms that he had come to the conclusion that no attempt
would be made to arrest him in his own house, and conse
quently not only waived the kind offers of his friends, but
also relaxed his own accustomed vigilance.

It was under these circumstances that on the evening of the
4th of May, Mr. Yallandigham and his family, consisting at
that time of his wife, son, his wife's sister, and a young nephew
of his own, and two domestics, females both, retired to rest
at their accustomed hour. At half-past two o'clock in the
morning they were rudely awakened from slumber by a violent
knocking upon the front door. Arising, Mr. Vallandigham,
who did not immediately suspect that it was a force coming to

256 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAtfDIGHAM.

arrest him, went to the front window of the room over the
parlor. As he approached it he heard the tramp of armed
men, the low voice of command given by officers, the rattling
of arms, and mutterings and whispering of many people.
Looking out, lights were seen gleaming amidst the shrubbery
in the yard below, and the glittering of many bayonets shone
bright from the gas-light near the house. As he threw open
the shutters the sounds struck upon his wife's cars, and she
screamed with affright. He demanded what was wanted.
Captain Hutton, an officer of General Burnside's staff, who was
in command, answered that he had been sent by that General
to arrest him, and that he might as well come down and sur
render. Mr. Yallandigham replied that he would not ; that
he, Captain Hutton, had no right to arrest him, and that
General Burnside had no right to issue an order for his
arrest. To this a threat was made that unless he would come
down he would be shot. He answered this in a defiant man
ner, and then shouted for the police. By this time the whole
household was up ; his wife and sister-in-law, both very nervous,
timid women, were weeping, nearly crazed by terror, and beg
ging him to come away from the window ; the servant girls
were equally alarmed. After repeated threats to shoot, inter
mingled with entreaties, the officer in command ordered the
front door to be forced ; but it was found too strong, and a
door in the rear was then attacked. The house now shook
with the violent blows of axes upon the door, and the horrid
clamor filled the hearts of the women with an agony of fear.
At last the door gave way, and the rattling of ramrods and
bayonets, as well as the half-suppressed oaths of the men as
they rushed into the back parlor, arose clearly and distinctly

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 257

in the night air. Mr. Yallandigham still determined he would
not surrender whilst there was any hope of rescue. He desired
to delay the soldiery until some organised effort could be made
by his friends outside to drive off his assailants. He had
dressed himself whilst the soldiers were bursting open the
door below ; and he arranged with his nephew, who had served
in the Union army, to open fire on the soldiers as soon as they
should be attacked from the outside. Another demand to sur
render was sternly refused, and the soldiers mounted the stair
and commenced battering away at the door of the room in
which he stood. He then retired into another room which
communicated with the one now attacked. In a few moments
the second door was broken in, but lo! the victim was not yet
brought to bay. A short interval of silence followed, and Mr.
V. endeavored to soothe the affrighted ladies whilst he anxiously •
listened for the sound of footsteps coming to his aid ; nothing,
however, but the measured tread of the sentinels could be
heard on the outside. The third door was now attacked, and
as there was no chance of successful resistance, he concealed his
revolver and calmly awaited the entry of the troops. The
house was full of soldiers, though the officer in command had
not entered, and directly the third door gave way the soldiers
broke into the room where he stood, and half a score of mus
kets were pointed instantly at him. Thereupon he said : "You
have now broken open my house and overpowered me by
superior force, a*nd I am obliged to surrender." The muskets
were lowered, and hastily though not roughly he was torn from
the arms of his devoted wife and weeping child and hurried
down stairs. Leaving his wife stupefied in agony of grief and
alarm, he passed through the shattered panels of his doors into
17

258 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

v
the street. The bugles sounded the recall,, and surrounded by

soldiery he was marched rapidly to the depot, and thence carried
by the special train to Cincinnati, where after daylight he was
taken to the military prison, Kemper Barracks.

The arrest and taking away of Mr. Yallandigham was made
with the greatest expedition. !Not more than thirty minutes
elapsed after the arrival of the special train from Cincinnati
before the troops were back to the depot with the prisoner, and
the train immediately moved off. It was daylight in Dayton
before the news of the arrest had become 'generally known,
although fire-bells were rung a short time after he was taken
away from his house.

The indignation aroused amongst the Democrats was fierce.
Men with frowning brows and clenched fists were to be seen all
over the city. As the day advanced the excitement rapidly
increased ; hundreds of men came in from the country around ;
crowds began to gather. The denunciations of the arrest and
of those concerned in it, became louder and more violent.
Those who had been very bitter and prescriptive amongst the
Republicans became alarmed, and some left the city as quietly
and secretly as possible. Towards evening the storm burst :
suddenly the Journal office, the Republican organ of the county,
was surrounded by a mob of frantic men ; pistols and bowic
knives gleamed. The office was attacked, its defenders fled ;
it was completely gutted, everything in it broken up and
destroyed ; the torch was then applied, and the sky was soon
illuminated by the red light of blazing roofs. It was with the
utmost difficulty that the Democratic leaders prevented the
fiercely exasperated crowds from attacking and hanging promi
nent Republicans and from burning their dwelling-houses.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 259

The railroads leading to Dayton were torn up ; the telegraph
wires were cut. It seemed as if a new civil war was impend
ing. But the mob was poorly armed, had no organization or
discipline, and no support from any other portion of the State.
The attack upon the liberties of the people had been so sudden
and unexpected that no concert of action existed even in Mont
gomery County. Leading Democrats were wise enough to see
the folly of any warlike demonstration, that it would only lead to
useless slaughter, and make bad worse. They exhorted the more
imprudent to return to their homes, and succeeded in persuad
ing them to do no further acts endangering the peace of the
city ; and when about ten o'clock the same night troops from
Cincinnati and Columbus reached Dayton, they met with no
resistance.

In the meantime, Mr. Vallandigham, who reached Cincin
nati soon after daylight, had been taken immediately to the
military prison, Kemper Barracks. Here he remained until
evening, when by order of General Burnside, who had become
greatly alarmed lest there should be a popular outbreak and
attempt to rescue, he was hurried across the river to Newport
Barracks, Kentucky, and there locked up for the night. The
next morning he was taken back to Cincinnati and brought
before the military commission. The same day, by Burnside^
order, military arrests commenced in Dayton. More than
thirty citizens were arrested and dragged down to the military
prisons at Cincinnati, and for six weeks every Democrat of
Montgomery County was at the mercy of an inebriate military
commandant. Burnside's own brutal conduct towards the
prisoners was consistent with his real character. He visited
them more than once with oaths and curses, and in one instance

260 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

with blows vented his rage upon them. Mr. "Vallandigham,
during the trial before the military commission, was placed in
room ~No. 246, in the attic ; he was kept under a strong guard,
who were ordered, in case of any attempt at rescue or escape,
to put him to death. Similar orders had been issued to his
captors previous to his arrest. A guard of soldiers with fixed
bayonets and loaded muskets marched with Mr. V. to and from
the Commission, and a squad of ten regulars kept watch day
and night over his room, while sentinels paced the pavements
below. Knowing that the object of his arrest was to intimidate
the Democracy of the country, he took the earliest opportunity
to write an address to the Democrats of Ohio, which is pre
sented below. He also desired the people to know that although
ignorant of his fate, he was not alarmed nor over-awed by the
danger staring him in the face, and he wished to encourage his
friends to stand firm and not bend to the storm. He wrote
this address in Kemper Barracks prison, and it was smuggled
out by a relative who visited him whilst he was kept in the
Burnett House, and immediately published to the world : —

"MILITARY PRISON, )
CINCINNATI, Ohio, May 5, 1863. y

"To the Democracy of Ohio: —

" I am here in a military bastile for no other offence than
my political opinions, and the defence of them and of the
rights of the people, and of your constitutional liberties.
Speeches made in the hearing of thousands of you in de
nunciation of the usurpations of power, infractions of the
Constitution and laws, and of military despotism, were the
sole cause of my arrest and imprisonment. I am a Democrat
— for Constitution, for law, for the Union, for liberty — this
is my only i crime.7 For no disobedience to the Constitution ;
for no violation of law; for no word, sign or gesture of
sympathy with the men of the South, who are for disunion

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 261

and Southern independence, but in obedience to their demand
as well as the demand of Northern Abolition disunionists and
traitors, I am here in bonds to-day ; but

'Time, at Last, sets all things even!'

Meanwhile, Democrats of Ohio, of the Northwest, of the
United States, be firm, be true to your principles, to the Con
stitution, to the Union, and all will yet be well. As for
myself, I adhere to every principle, and will make good
through imprisonment and life itself every pledge and dec
laration which I have ever made, uttered or maintained from
the beginning. To you, to the whole people, to TIME, I again
appeal. Stand firm ! Falter not an instant !

" C. L. VALLAKDIGHAM."

CHAPTER XII.

*

TRIAL BEFORE MILITARY COMMISSION.

THE day after his arrest, Mr. Vallandigham was brought
before a military commission for trial. The proceedings we
give in full :

"CINCINNATI, May 6, 1863.

" The Commission convened at ten o'clock A. M.

"The Judge Advocate read the general order from the
headquarters of the Department of the Ohio, appointing the
following officers a commission to try all parties brought
before it, and Mr. Vallandigham was asked whether he had
any objections to offer to any member of the court.

" The following officers compose the court :

" Brig.-General E. B. Potter, President,

" Captain J. M. Cutts, Judge Advocate.

" Colonel J. F. DeCourcy, Sixteenth Ohio Y. I.

" Lieut.-Colonel E. K. Goodrich, Com. Sub.

" Major Van Buren, A. D. C.

" Major Brown, Tenth Kentucky Cavalry.

" Major Fitch, One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio Y. I.

" Captain Lydig, A. D. C.

" Mr. Vallandigham said he was not acquainted with any
of the members of the court, and had no objection to offer to
them individually, but he protested that the commission had
no authority to try him, he being neither in the land nor naval
force of the United States, nor in the militia in the actual ser
vice of the United States, and was not therefore triable by such
a court, but was amenable only to the judicial courts of the
land.

" The members of the court were then sworn to try his
case impartially.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 263

" The Judge Advocate then read the following charge and
specification :

CHARGE.

" Publicly expressing, in violation of General Orders No. 38,
from headquarters, Department of the Ohio, his sympathies for
those in arms against the Government of the United States,
declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions, with the object and
purpose of weakening the power of the Government in its
efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion.

" In this, that the said Clement L. Vallandighara, a citizen
of the State of Ohio, on or about the 1st day of May, 1863, at
Mount Vernon, Kiiox County, Ohio, did publicly address a
large meeting of citizens, and did utter sentiments in words or
in effect as follows : declaring the present war 'a, wicked, cruel
and unnecessary war ; ' ' a war not being waged for the preser
vation of the Union ; ' ' a war for the purpose of crushing out
liberty and erecting a despotism ; ' . ' a war for the freedom of
the blacks and the enslavement of the whites ; ? stating ( that
if the Administration had so wished, the war could have been
honorably terminated months ago ; ' that ( peace might have
been honorably obtained by listening to the proposed interme
diation of France ; ' that ' propositions by which the Southern
States could be won back and the South be guaranteed their
rights under the Constitution, had been rejected the day before
the late battle at Fredericksburg, by Lincoln and his minions/
meaning thereby the President of the United States and those
under him in authority. Charging that the ' Government of
the United States were about to appoint military marshals in
every district to restrain the people of their liberties, to deprive
them of their rights and privileges/ Characterising General
Order No. 38, from headquarters Department of the Ohio, as
'a base usurpation of arbitrary authority; ' inviting his hearers
to resist the same by saying : ' The sooner the people inform
the minions of usurped power that they will not submit to such
restrictions upon their liberties the better ; ' declaring ' that he
was at all times and upon all occasions resolved to do what he
could to defeat the attempts now being made to build up a
monarchy upon the ruins of our free government j ' asserting

264 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

( that he firmly believed, as he said six months ago, that the
men in power are attempting to establish a despotism in this
country more cruel and more oppressive than ever existed
before/

" All of which opinions and sentiments he well knew did
aid, comfort and encourage those in arms against the Govern
ment, and could but induce in his hearers a distrust of their
own Government and sympathy for those in arms against it,
and a disposition to resist the laws of the land.

"J. M. CUTTS,
" Captain Eleventh Infantry, Judge Advocate, Department of Ohio.

"Mr. Yallandigham was asked by the Judge Advocate
what his plea was.

"Mr. Yallandigham refused to plead, and asked time to
consult his counsel, and for process to compel the attendance of
Fernando Wood, of New York city, who should be required to
bring with him the letter which he received from Richmond in
relation to terms offered for the return of Southern Senators to
their seats in Congress, with the letter of the President declin
ing to entertain the proposition.

" Mr. Yallandigham continuing to refuse to plead to the
charge, the President directed that the plea of ' not guilty ' be
entered on the record.

" The Court then gave Mr. Yallandigham time to consult
his counsel, and for that purpose ordered a recess to half-past
one o'clock.

" The Court was then cleared for deliberation, as to whether
the clelay asked for by Mr. Yallandigham should be granted,
and remained closed until near noon.

" The Court again met pursuant to adjournment, and the
doors were opened.

" The President asked Mr. Yallandigham whether he de
sired to appear with counsel.

"Mr. Yallandigham said he did not. His counsel, George
E. Pugh, George H. Pendleton, and Alexander Ferguson, re
mained in the adjoining room.

" The Judge Advocate announced that the case would be
proceeded with, and called the first witness for the prosecution.

" Captain H. R. Hill, of the One Hundred and Fifteenth
Ohio Yolunteers, was sworn.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. .265

" Question by Judge Advocate. — Were you present at a meet
ing of citizens at Mount Vernon on May 1, 1863?

" Answer. — I was.

" Q. — Did you hear accused address that meeting ?

"A.— I did.

" Q. — What position did you occupy at the meeting, and
were you near enough to hear all he said?

"A. — I was leaning against the end of the platform on,
which he was speaking ; was about six feet from him ; I re
mained in this position during the whole time he was speaking.

" By Judge Advocate. — State what remarks he made in re
lation to the war ; what he said about the President of the
United States and the orders of military commanders.

" Witness. — In order that I may bring in events as they
were referred to by the speaker, I ask permission of the court
to refresh my memory from the notes which I took at the time.

"President. — You can read from your notes.

"Witness.-^ The speaker commenced by referring to the
canopy under which he was speaking — the stand having been
decorated with an American flag — the flag under the Consti
tution.

"Judge Advocate. — You need not give his introductory re
marks. Confine yourself to what he said about the war.

" Witness. — After finishing his exordium he spoke of the
designs of those in power being to erect a despotism. That it
was not their intention to effect a restoration of the Union.
That previous to the battle of Fredericksburg an attempt was
made to stay this wicked, cruel and unnecessary war. That
the war could have been ended in February last. That a day
or two before the battle of Fredericksburg a proposition had
been made for the re-admission of Southern Senators into the
United States Congress, and that the refusal was still in exist
ence over the President's own signature, which would be made
public as soon as the ban of secrecy imposed by the President
was removed. That the Union could have been saved if the
plan proposed by the speaker had been adopted; that the
Union could have been saved upon the basis of reconstruction,
but that it would have ended in the exile or death of those
who advocated a continuance of the war. He then referred to
Forney, who was a well-known correspondent of the Phila
delphia Press (and who had no right to speak for any but

266 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

those who were connected with the Administration), who had
said that some of our public men, rather than bring back some
of the seceded States, would submit to a permanent separation
of the Union. He stated that France, a nation that had always
shown herself to be a friend of our Government, had proposed
to act as a mediator; but that her proposition, which, if
accepted, might have brought about an honorable peace, was
insolently rejected.

" Mr. Yallandigham here corrected the witness. TJie word
he used was i instantly/ not ' insolently/

" Witness. — I understood the word he used to have been
' insolently/ That the people had been deceived ; that 20,000
lives had been lost at the battle at Fredericksburg that might
have been saved. In speaking of the objects of the war, he
said it was a war for the liberation of the blacks and the
enslavement of the whites. We had been told it would be
terminated in three months ; then in nine months, and again
in a year. That the war was still in progress, and that there
was no prospect of its being, ended. That Richmond was
theirs; that Charleston and Vicksburg were theirs; that the
Mississippi was not opened, and would not be so long as there
was cotton on its banks to be stolen, or so long as there were
any contractors or officers to enrich. That a Southern paper
had denounced him and Cox and the Peace Democrats as
having done more to prevent the establishing of the Southern
Confederacy than ten thousand soldiers could do. That they
proposed to operate through the masses of the people in both
sections who were in favor of the Union. That it was the
purpose or design of the Administration to suppress or prevent
such meetings as the one he was addressing. That military
marshals were about to be appointed in every district, who
would act for the purpose of restricting the liberties of the
people; but that he was a freeman. That he did not ask
David Tod, or Abraham Lincoln, or Ambrose E. Burnside for
his right to speak as he had done and was doing. That his
authority for so doing was higher than General Order ]STo. 38
— it was General Order No. 1 — the Constitution. That
General Order No. 38 was a base usurpation of arbitrary
power; that he had the most supreme contempt for such
power. He despised it and spat upon it. He trampled it
under his feet. That only a few days before, a man had been

LIFE OP CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 267

dragged from his home in Butler County by an outrageous
usurpation of power and tried for an offence not known to our
laws by a self-constituted court-martial — tried without a jury,
which is guaranteed to every one ; that he had been fined and
imprisoned. That two men were brought over from Kentucky
and tried, contrary to express lawrs for the trial of treason, and
were now under the sentence of death. That an order had
just been issued in Indiana, denying to persons the right to
canvass or discuss military policy, and that if it was sub
mitted to it would be followed up by a similar order in Ohio.
That he was resolved never to submit to an order of a military
dictator, prohibiting the free discussion of either civil or mili
tary authority. The sooner that the people informed the
minions of this usurped power that they would not submit to
such restrictions upon their liberties, and they would not cringe
and cower before such authority, the better. Let them not be
deluded by the image of liberty when the spirit is gone. He
proclaimed the right to criticise the acts of our military ser
vants in power. That there never was a tyrant in any age
who oppressed the people further than he thought they would
submit to endure. That in the clays of Democratic authority
Tom Corwin had in face of Congress hoped that our brave
volunteers in Mexico ( might be welcomed with bloody hands
to hospitable graves/ but that he had not been interfered with.
It was never before thought necessary to appoint a captain of
cavalry as Provost Marshal, as was now the case in Indiana
polis, or military dictators as were now exercising authority in
Cincinnati and Columbus. That a law had recently been
enacted in Ohio, as well as in some other States, regulating the
manner in which soldiers should vote ; that the officers have to
be judges of the election.

" The Judge Advocate objected to this part of the testimony
as irrelevant.

"Mr. Yallandigham desired the court to permit the witness
to go on with his testimony.

" Witness. — The speaker closed by warning the people not
to be deceived. That an attempt would shortly be made to
enforce the conscription1 law, and to remember that the war was
not for the preservation of the Union, but that it was a wicked
Abolition war, and that if those in authority were allowed to
accomplish their purposes, the people would be deprived of

268 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

their liberties, and a monarchy established ; but as for him lie
was resolved that he would never be a priest, to minister at the
altar on which his country was being sacrificed.

" Question by Judge Advocate. — What other flags or em
blems were used in decorating the stage ?

"A. — There were banners made of frame work, and
covered with canvas, which were decorated with butternuts and
bore inscriptions. One banner, which was carried at the head
of a delegation which came in from a town in the country,
bore the inscription, 'The copperheads are coming.'

"Mr. Vallandigham. — The South never carried copper
cjents.

" Judge Advocate. — But butternuts are a Southern emblem.

" Mr. Vallandigham shook his head, and said they were
not.

" Question by Judge Advocate. — Did you see any persons
having emblems on their persons ?

" A. — Yes • I saw hundreds of persons wearing butternut
and copperhead badges.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — The copper badges were simply the
head cut out of the common cent coins, with pins attached.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — Did you notice what inscription
these copperhead badges bore?

" A. — No ; I did not look at them.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — The inscription on them was ' Lib
erty/

" Question by Judge Advocate. — Did you hear any cheers in
the crowd for Jeff. Davis ?

"Mr. Vallandigham. — That is not in the specification.

" A. — I did not hear cheers for Jeff. Davis, but I heard a
shout in the crowd that ' Jeff. Davis was a gentleman, and that
was more than the President was/

" CKOSS-EXAMINED BY MB. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Q. — Did not I refer in my speech to the Crittenden Com
promise propositions, and condemn their rejection ?

" As the witness was about answering, the Judge Advocate
objected to the question, on the ground that it was bringing in
matter foreign to the charge and specification. The court al
lowed the question to be answered.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 269

" A. — When endeavoring to show that the party in power
had not the restoration of the Union in view in conducting the
war, and that that was not their object, he stated a number of
means by which that could have been accomplished ; and from
the fact that none had been adopted, he considered it proof that
the restoration of the Union was not the object for which the
war was being waged.

" Q. — Did I not quote Judge Douglass's declaration that
the rejection —

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I desire to prove that in my speech I
stated that Mr. Douglass had said that the responsibility for the
rejection of the Crittenden proposition was with the Republican
party.

" The Judge Advocate stated that his objection was that the
question was bringing in political opinions and discussions with
which the court had nothing to do.

"The room was cleared for deliberation and the doors closed.

" After an interval of fifteen minutes the doors were again
opened, and then the Judge Advocate announced that the ques
tion would not be admitted.

"§. — When speaking in connection with Forney's Press,
did I not say that if other Democrats in Washington and myself
had not refused all idea and suggestions of some prominent
men of the party in power to make peace on terms of disunion,
that I believe the war would have been ended in February ?

"A. — When speaking of the propositions before referred to,
and that this war was not being carried on for the restoration
of the Union, he stated that if the Democracy in Washington
had united in a plan for the permanent separation of the Union,
it would have been accomplished in February.

"Q. — Did I not refer expressly to myself in that connection,
and say that I had refused and always would refuse to agree
to a separation of the States — in other words, on peace terms
of disunion ?

"A. — Well, that idea is not exactly as it was expressed.
He stated something to that effect. That he wished to have a
voice in the manner in which the Union was to be reconstructed,
and that our Southern brethren should also have a voice in the
matter.

" Q. — Referring to the Richmond Enquirer article, did I not
say that it, Jeff. Davis's organ, had called Dictator Lincoln to

270 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

lock up Mr. Cox, Senator Richardson, and myself in one of
his military prisons, because of our doing so much against
Southern recognition and independence ?
"A. — That is substantially what he said.
"§.-— Referring to General Order No. 38, did I not say that
in so far as it undertook to subject citizens not in the land or
naval forces of the United States, or militia of the United
States in actual service, to trial by court-martial or military
commission, I believed it to be unconstitutional and a usurpa
tion of arbitrary power ?

"A. — Yes, except in the words e in so far/

" Q. — Referring to two citizens of Kentucky tried by mil
itary court in Cincinnati, did I not say that what they were
charged with was actual treason, punishable by death, and that
if guilty, the penalty by statute was hanging, and they ought
to be hung, after being tried by a judicial court and a jury; in
stead of which they had been tried by a military court, as I
understood, and sentenced to fine and imprisonment — one of
them §300 fine ?

"A. — I don't think he put those e ifs ' in. I think he said
they were improperly tried, and by a usurpation of power.

" Mr. Vallandlgliam. — Strike out the ' ifs' then.

" Witness. — That was substantially what he said.

" Q. — Did I not also say in that connection that the rebel
officer who was tried as a spy by the military court at Cincin
nati was legally and properly tried, according to the rules and
articles; tried and convicted — that that was a clear case,
where the Court had jurisdiction?

"A. — It is my recollection that he denounced the Court as
an unlawful tribunal, and did not make the distinction.

" Question by Judge Advocate. — Did he refer to the case of
Campbell, the rebel spy, and make any distinction ?

"A. — No. He denounced the Court first and then gave
the instances, which I have already related in my direct testi
mony.

" Question by Mr. Vallandlgliam. — Do you not remember
my speaking of the Campbell case, and saying that he was
properly tried ?

"A. — He may, but I do not recollect it. He probably did
refer to the Campbell case.

" Q. — May I not have made the distinction and you not
have heard it ?

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 271

"The Judge Advocate said lie would admit that the accused
did draw the distinction between the cases, and that he ad
mitted the right of the Court to try the spy. In other words,
that he condemned the trial of the Butler County man, and
approved the case of the spy who was tried and convicted.

"§• — Did I not distinctly in the conclusion of the speech
enjoin upon the people to stand by the Union at all events,
and that if war failed, not to give the Union up, but to try by
peaceable means, by compromise, to restore it as our fathers
made it ; and that though others might consent or be forced
to consent, I would not myself be one of those who would
take any part in agreeing to a dissolution of the Union?

"A. — Yes. He said that he and the peace men were the
only ones who wished the restoration, of the Union.

"Q. — Did not one of the banners you refer to as decorated
with butternuts bear the inscription, 'The Constitution as it
is, and the Union as it was ' ?

(A. — The banners were numerous. One of them, I be
lieve, did bear that inscription.

'' Q. — Do you mean to be understood to say that he heard
the reference to Jeif. Davis in the crowd, or gave any assent to
it whatever ?

"A. — I cannot say that he did. Did not see or hear him
give any assent to it. There were many other remarks of that
character uttered.

"Q — What was the size of the crowd assembled there?

"A. — I do not know the proper estimate, but the crowd
was very large.

"The Court then adjourned to Thursday morning at ten
o'clock.

"SECOND DAY

"The Court met at ten o'clock A. M. Present as before.
Yesterday's proceedings and testimony were read and approved,
and were signed by the President.

" Captain Hill was again called to the stand, and his cross-
examination was resumed by Mr. Vallandigham.

"Question by Mr. Vallandigham. — In speaking of the
character of the war, did I not expressly say, 'As Mr. Lincoln
in his proclamation of July 1, 1862, said, "this unnecessary and
injurious war7'?'

272 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM,

"Answer. — I don't recollect that lie did. Tke language
made use of I understood to be his own.

"Mr. Vallandigham. — Of course I could not put the quo
tation marks in my speech.

"Q. — Again, in speaking of the character of the war, did I
not expressly give as proof, the President's proclamation of
Sept. 22, 1862, and Jan. 1, 1863, as declaring the emancipa
tion of the slaves in the seceded States, and as proof that the
war was now being waged for that purpose ?

" The witness was about to answer when the Judge Advo
cate checked him. He said it was bringing up matters which
were foreign to the charge and specification, and that the Court
was not called upon to pass upon the merits of the President's
proclamation. He then desired that the Court should be
closed for deliberation.

" Mr. VallandigJiam. — I desire to show this fact, in explan
ation of the purpose and object of my declaration as to the
present character of the war, and as my authority for the
statement ; for I assume that the President is not disloyal.

" The Judge Advocate insisted that the question required
the Court to pass judgment upon the merits of the President's
proclamation, and not whether lie (Mr. Vallandigham) was
expressing his own sentiments or those of the President.

" After the Commission had deliberated, the Judge Advo
cate said the question would not be admitted.

" Q. — Did you continue in the same place during the
delivery of the whole speech !

" A.— I did.

/' §• — Were your notes taken at the time, or reduced to
writing after the speech was delivered ?

" A.— They were taken at the time, just as they fell from
the speaker's lips.

" §. — Were you not in citizen's clothes, and how came you
to be at Mount Vernon that day? Did you go to Mount
Vernon for the purpose of taking notes and reporting the
speecli ?

" Judge Advocate. — I object to this question on the ground
of its immateriality.

" Mr. Vallandigham insisted on the question on the ground
that it explained the temper and spirit of the witness, and his
prejudices, and as showing that the notes were taken with ref-

LIFE OF -CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 273

erence to the arrest and prosecution before this Commission,
he being a captain in the service, and his regiment in Cin
cinnati.

" The question was objected to by the Judge Advocate, and
the Court was cleared for deliberation.

" On opening the doors again the Judge Advocate answered
that the question would be allowed.

"A. — I was in citizen's clothes, and went for the purpose of
listening to any speeches that might be made that day. I had
no orders to take notes.

"Q. — Did you take notes of any other speech?

"A. — I commenced taking notes of Mr. Cox's speech, but
considered it harmless, and after a short time stopped.

" Q. — Were you not expressly sent for the purpose of listen
ing to my speech on that occasion?

"A. — I was not, any more than to the others.

" Q. — By whom were you sent ?

"A. — By Captain Andrew C. Kemper, Assistant Adjutant
General of the military command of this city.

" Q. — Did you make a report to him upon your return ?

"A. — I didn't report to Captain Kemper, but to Colonel
Eastman, and was from there sent to the headquarters of the
Department of the Ohio.

" This closed the testimony of Captain Hill on both the
direct and cross-examination.

" Captain John A. Means, One Hundred and Fifteenth
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was sworn.

" Question by the Judge Advocate. — What is your rank and
regiment ?

"A. — Captain in the One Hundred and Fifteenth O. Y. I.

" Q' — Were you present at the meeting of citizens at Mount
Vernon, Ohio, on Friday, May 1, 1863?

"A.— I was.

"Q. — Did you hear the accused address that meeting?

"A. — I did. I stood most of the time about ten feet imme
diately in front of the stand and heard the whole of the speech.
He said that the war was not carried on for the preservation
of. the Union ; that it might have been stopped and peace
restored some time ago and the Union saved, if the plan which

18

274 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

had been submitted had been accepted by the Government the
day before the battle of Fredericksburg.

" Mr. Yallandigham objected to anything on this last point
on the ground that he had applied for a subpoena for Fernando
Wood, of New York, to bring with him the plan proposed, and
had been refused.

. " The Judge Advocate replied that this point might be
waived, and he would strike from the specifications what related
to the proposed plan of restoring the Union.

" The witness continued : That if the plan had been adopted,
peace would have been restored, the Union saved by reconstruc
tion, the North won back and guaranteed in her rights. That
our armies didn't meet with success ; that Richmond was not
taken, Charleston, nor Vicksburg ; that the Mississippi was not
open, and would not be as long as there was cotton to sell or con
tractors to reward. He spoke in regard to the rebuke of the
Administration at the last fall election ; that no more volunteers
could be had; that the Administration had to resort to the
French conscription act ; that he would not counsel resistance
to the military or civil law, for that was not needed. That a
people were unworthy to be freemen who would submit to such
encroachments on their liberties.

" Mr. Vattandigham. — What was I referring to when I
made the remark you say I did ?

" A. — He was speaking of the conscription act. He said
he believed the Administration was attempting to erect a des
potism ; that in less than one month Lincoln had plunged the
country into this cruel, bloody, and unnecessary war.

" Q. — Can you recall anything he said in relation to Gen
eral Order No. 38 ?

" A. — He said the General Order No. 38 was a usurpation
of power ; that he despised it, spat upon it, trampled it under
his feet ; that he, for one, would not regard it. He styled the
Administration officers, and officers of the army, as minions of
the Administration. He said he did not ask General Ambrose
Burnside whether he might speak there or not ; that he was a
freeman, and spoke when and where he pleased.

" Q. — Do you remember anything he said with reference to
the course he advised the people to pursue ?

" A. — He said these proclamations and military orders were
intended to intimidate the people, and prevent them from

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 275

mingling together as they were doing that day ; that he claimed
the right to discuss and criticise the actions of the civil and
military officers of the Government.

" Q. — Did he advise the people to take any steps ?

" A. — He advised them, at the close of his speech, to come
up together at the ballot-box, and hurl the tyrant from his
throne. He styled the President at another time as 'King
Lincoln.'

" Q. — By Mr. Vallandigham : Did you take any notes
during the delivery of the speech, or are you testifying from
memory ?

" A. — I took no minutes during the delivery of the speech;
but after Mr. Pendleton began speaking I went to the .hotel,
perhaps an hour and a half afterwards, and wrote some
minutes of the speech.

" Q. — You speak of my saying that 'the North might
have been won back ; ' was it not the South might have been
won back?

"A. — No; I noticed that particularly, and it struck me
very forcibly.

" [Mr. VaUandigham. — If I said it, it must have been a slip
of the tongue.]

" Q. — You say that I said I would not counsel resistance
to military or civil law. Did I not expressly counsel the
people to obey the Constitution and all law, and to pay proper
respect to men in authority, and to maintain their political
rights through the ballot-box, and redress personal wrongs
through the judicial tribunals of the country, and in that way
to rebuke and put down the Administration and all usurpa
tions of power?

"A. — Not in that connection. He said, at the last of his
speech, to come up to the ballot-box and hurl the tyrant from
his throne.

" Q. — Did he not counsel them to submit to all laws?

"A. — No, Sir; I didn't understand him to counsel the
people to submit to the authorities at all times. I can't re
member that he used the language of the question, or the sub
stance of it as stated.

" Q.— Did I not say that my authority to speak to the

276 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

people in public assemblages, on all public questions, was not
derived from General Order No. 38, but General Order No.
1, the Constitution of the United States, General Washington
commanding ?

" A. — I understood him to say that his authority to speak
to the people was higher than General Order No. 38 of that
mobbing despot, General Burnside ; it was Order No. 1, signed
by George Washington.

" Q. — Were not the three names of Tod, Lincoln, and Burn-
side used together, and that I didn't ask their consent to speak ?

" A. — At another time he used these words.

" Q. — Were not the remarks you say I made about des
pising, spitting upon, and trampling under foot, expressly
applied in reference to arbitrary power generally ; and did I
not in that connection refer to General Order No. 9, in Indiana,
signed by General Haskall," deny ing the right to criticise the
war policy of the Administration ?

" A. — The remarks in regard to despising, spitting upon,
trampling under foot, were made in direct reference to Order
No. 38. He some time afterwards, in speaking of the Admin
istration, said that an order had been issued in Indiana denying
the people the right to criticise the military policy of the
Administration, and if submitted to it would be followed by
civil war in Ohio.

"Q. — Do you undertake to give any connected or metho
dical statement of the speech on that occasion ?

"Judge Advocate. — The Court can judge as to that point;
but he may answer.

"A. — I do not pretend to give the speech commencing with
the first and giving it just as he spoke it.

" Mr. Vallandigham then asked the same questions as he
asked the former witness, with reference to the way in which
he went to the meeting, and in addition, whether he went there
to report the speech for the purpose of a prosecution under
General Order No. 38.

"A.— I did not.

" Q. — Were any reasons given you why you should go there
to report the speech ?

" The Judge Advocate objected to such questions, for the
reason that they were evidently intended for some other pur
pose than to subserve the ends of justice in the trial.

i-r

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 27

" Q- — I will put the question in this way, then : "Was any
object stated to you, and if so, what ?

"A. — There was no object stated.

" The Judge Advocate here rested his evidence.

" Mr. -Vallandigham asked a recess of fifteen minutes, for
the purpose of consultation with his lawyers, at the close of
which he proceeded with the testimony on his behalf.

" Q. — By Mr. Vallandigham. — Were you present at the
public meeting in Mount Vernon on Friday, May 1, 1863?

"A. — I was present as one of the speakers; I heard the
whole speech ; I stood on the platform near him, so that I
could not fail to hear all that he said ; I had not heard him
speak since the adjournment of Congress, and, as I came in
from the West, I did not know he was there ; I took especial
interest in listening to his speech throughout; and having to
follow him, I naturally noticed the topics which he discussed.

" Q. — Did you hear his allusions to General Burnside,
and, if so, what were they ?

ff A. — The only allusion that he made to the General was.
I think, in the beginning of his speech, in which he said that
lie was not there by the favor of Abraham Lincoln, David
Tod, or General Ambrose E. Burnside.

" Q. — Was any epithet applied to him during the speech ?

"A. — No, Sir. If there had been, I should have noticed
it, because General Burnside was an old personal friend of
mine. I should have remembered any odious epithet applied
to him.

" Q. — Did you hear the reference to General Order 38, and
if so, what were the words ?

"A. — The only reference that was made to that order was
something to this effect: that he didn't recognise — I don't
know that I can quote the language — Order No. 38 as su
perior to Order No. 1, the Constitution, from George Wash
ington, commanding ; I don't know as this is the language ; I
thought it a very handsome point at the time.

." Q. — Were any violent epithets, such as ' spit upon/
' trample under foot/ and the like, used at any time in the
speech in reference to that Order 38.

278 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"A. — I can't recollect any denunciatory epithets applied to
that order. If there was any criticism made upon it, it was
mentioned above, in the remark about the Constitution. Mr.
Vallandigham discussed these matters very briefly. He took
up most of his time on another point, in connection with the
question of closing the war by separation. He charged that
the men in authority were willing to make a peace by separa
tion. He exhausted some time in reading proofs from Mont
gomery Blair, and from Forney; and also stated that there
were private proofs yet to be developed, and which time would
disclose, proving his statement. He bitterly denounced any
attempt to make peace by a separation of the States.

"§. — Do you remember to what, if at all, in connection
with future usurpations of power, he applied his strongest
language ?

"A. — I can't say as to the strongest language, for he always
speaks pretty strongly. He denounced any usurpation of
power to stop public discussion and the suffrage. He appealed
to the people to protect their rights as the remedy for their
grievances. He warned against violence and revolutions. By
the powerful means of the ballot-box all might be remedied
that was wrong of a public nature, and the courts would remedy
all grievances of a private personal nature.

"Q. — Was anything said by him at all looking to forcible
resistance of either law or military orders ?

"A. — Not as I understood it.

"Q. — Was anything said by him in denunciation of the
conscription law?

"A. — My best recollection is that he didn't say a word
about it.

" Q. — Did he refer to the French conscription bill ?

"A. — He did not. I spoke of it myself.

" The Judge Advocate objected to what Mr. Cox had said,
as not being competent evidence.

" Mr. Cox desired to say to the Court, in explanation of
what he said about the Conscription law, that he had just
before the meeting been talking with Judge Bartley about our
Conscription law having been copied from the French law, and
I merely referred to that in my speech.

" Q. — By Mr. Vallandigham. — Do you remember my quot
ing from President Lincoln's proclamation of July 1, 1862, the
words ' unnecessary and injurious war ' ?

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 279

"A. — I do not. He may have done so, but I did not hear it.

" Q' — By Mr. Vallandigham. — Did you hear similar lan
guage used by me ?

" A. — I cannot recollect it.

" Q. — Do you remember his comments on the change of the
policy in the war ?

" A. — He did refer to the change in the policy of the war,
and devoted some time to showing that it was now carried on
for the abolition of slavery ; that it had been perverted from a
war for the preservation of the Union to one for the abolition
of slavery. He referred to the Crittenden resolution to show
that the war was originally for the restoration of the Union.

" Q. — By Mr. Vallandigham. — Did I counsel any other
mode in that speech of resisting usurpations of arbitrary
power, except by free discussion and the ballot-box ?

" A.— He did not.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — As I understand that portion of the
specification which relates to the proposition from Richmond
has been stricken out, I will ask no questions about it.

" Q' — Was any denunciation of officers in the army indulged
in by him, or any offensive epithets applied to them ?

" A. — When, occasionally, he used the words, ' the Pres
ident and his minions/ I didn't understand him to use them
as applicable to the army. I think it was in connection with
arbitrary arrests when he used these words.

" Q. — Was it not in connection with army contractors and
speculators ?

" The Judge Advocate objected to the question, and said
the witness had distinctly stated that he did not think Mr.
Vallandigham had applied it to the officers of the army.

" Q. — Do I understand you to say that the denunciations
to which you refer were chiefly in reference to arbitrary
arrests ?

" A. — My recollection is that that was the connection in
which it was used. He used strong epithets towards spies
and informers, and did not seem to like them very much.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — As the Court has admitted that I did
make a distinction between the Butler County case and the
Kentucky spy, I will not refer to it now.

" Q. — Do you remember the connection in which words to
this effect were used at the close of the speech : ' in regard to

280 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

the possibility of a dissolution of the Union ' and of his own
determination in regard to such a contingency, ' and his de
clining to act as a priest ' ?

" A. — I cannot give the exact words, but I remember the
metaphor, ' that he would not be a priest to minister at the
altar of disunion/ It was as he wound up his speech. He was
speaking about disunion, and his attachment to the Union.

" Q. — What counsel did he give the people on the subject
of the Union at the close of his speech ?

"A. — He invoked them under no circumstances to surren
der the Union. I think he said something about leaving it to
our posterity.

"Q. — Do you remember his rebuke of arbitrary court-
martials, and was it in connection with the Butler County
case?

"A. — Yes; I so understood it.

" Q. — What was the general character of his remarks on
that subject ?

"A. — He denounced the applause of Jefferson Davis by
that party, and said there was a mode by which this man could
be tried.

" Mr. Vallandigham asked whether the rebuke had not re
ference to and was spoken in connection with the Butler County
case ? He desired a distinct answer to this.

" Mr. Cox. — He was speaking of the Butler County case,
and he pointed out a mode by which such a man could be
tried.

" Q. — Was anything said in his speech in reference to the
war except in condemnation of what he claimed to be the
policy upon which it is now being waged, and as a policy
which he insisted could not restore the Union, but must end
finally in disunion ?

" A. — I can only give my understanding. I do not know
what inference other people might draw from it. I understood
his condemnation of the war to be launched at the perversion
of its original purpose.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I do not remember anything further
just now. I have some other witnesses whom I desire to ex
amine on this same point who are not yet here.

" Judge Advocate. — I have no questions to put to the wit
ness.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 281

" To Mr. Vallandigham. — Has not this witness sufficiently
developed the purpose and spirit of your speech ?

"Mr. Vallandigham. — I have called but one witness, and
I understand the Court has several more to corroborate what
their first witness has testified.

" Judge Advocate. — The Court will not be influenced by the
number of witnesses. The number had nothing to do with
the case.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — I did not counsel any resistance in
my speech, and there were three witnesses on the stand, one of
whom was the presiding officer, and one a reporter, who is ac
customed to reporting speeches, though he did not -report on
that occasion, whom I have telegraphed for, and expect here at
4 P. M.

" The Judge Advocate suggested that Mr. Pendleton, who
was now present, was at the meeting at Mount Yernon, and
that he might be called to the stand.

" Mi\ Vallandigham. — Mr. Pendleton has been engaged in
this case, and I would prefer not to call him, as I have other
witnesses. I also desire to show that the criticisms in my
speech were not in reference to General Order No. 38.

" Judge Advocate. — The witness has just said so.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — If the Court will admit that, then
I will not call other witnesses.

" Judge Advocate. — I will admit that the language might
not have been used, especially towards General Order No. 38 ;
but it has been proved that such language was used in the
Mount Vernon speech in reference to military orders.

" ]\Ir. Vallandigham.— I want to prove that it was not used
in relation to General Order No. 38.

" Judge Advocate. — I will admit that the language was not
used in regard to General Order No. 38, but generally to
military orders.

"Mr. Vallandigham said he desired time to prepare a
defence covering this testimony, and would, according to the
rules governing courts-martial, submit it in writing.

" The Judge Advocate said he might cover one hundred or
two hundred pages of foolscap in reviewing the case, and this
would take time. He [the Judge Advocate] did not propose
to say anything on the evidence, but would leave it with tne
Court. Mr. Vallandigham might say what he desired in

282 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

defence verbally, and it could be reported in short-hand, and
thus save time.

" Mr. Vallandigham preferred to have the record correct, as
it would have to go before another tribunal.

" The Court then took a recess to half-past four o'clock.

" The Court reconvened at five P. M.

"The Judge Advocate stated that the witnesses for the
accused, who were expected — namely: Leckey Harper, J. T.
Irvine, and Frank H. Hurd — had not arrived, and that he had
agreed with the accused to admit, as it would avoid a continu
ance, that if they were present and under oath they would
testify substantially the same as Mr. Cox had done.

" Thereupon Mr. Vallandigham said he had no more testi
mony to offer, and the case closed.

" The Judge Advocate now announced that the testimony
was all in. ,

"At the request of Mr. Vallandigham, the testimony of
Mr. Cox was read over.

" Mr. Vallandigham. — Gentlemen of the Court, very briefly
and respectfully I offer the following protest :

" Arrested without process of law, without warrant from
any judicial officer, and now in military custody, I have been
served with a charge and specifications as from a court-martial
or military commission. I am not in either the land or the
naval service of the United States, and therefore am not triable
for any cause by such court, but am subject, by the express
terms of the Constitution, to arrest only by due process of law,
or warrant issued by some officer of a court of competent juris
diction for trial of citizens. I am subject to indictment and
trial on presentation of a grand jury, and am entitled to a
speedy trial, to be confronted with witnesses and to compulsory
process for witnesses in my behalf, and am entitled to counsel.
All these I demand, as my right as a citizen of the United
States. But the alleged offence itself is not known to the Con
stitution, nor to any law thereof. It is words spoken to the
people of Ohio in an open public political meeting, lawfully
and peacefully assembled, under the Constitution, and upon
full notice.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 283

" It is words of criticism of the public pojicy, of the public
servants of the people, by which policy it was alleged that the
welfare of the country was not promoted. It was an appeal to
the people to change that policy, not by force but by free elec
tions and the ballot-box. It is not pretended that I counselled
disobedience to the Constitution or resistance to law or lawful
authority. I never have. I have nothing further to submit.

(Signed) C. L. VALLANDIGHAM.

May 7.

"Judge Advocate. — I find nothing in the defence of the
accused to call for remark, except that in regard to counsel and
summoning of witnesses. He was permitted to have, and did
have counsel to consult with, and an opportunity was oifered
him to send for witnesses.

" The Court was then cleared for deliberation, and after a
session of three hours, their decision was made and submitted
to General Burnside for his approval.

"FINDING AND SENTENCE.

" The Commission, after mature deliberation on the evidence
adduced and the statement of the accused, find the accused,
Clement L. Yallandigham, a citizen of the State of Ohio, as
follows :

" Of the specifications (except the words, ' That propositions
by which the Northern States could be won back, and the
South guaranteed their rights under the Constitution, had been
rejected the day before the battle of Fredericksburg, by Lincoln
and his minions/ meaning thereby the President of the United
States, and those under him in authority, and the words ' as
serting that he firmly believed, as he asserted six months ago,
that the men in power are attempting to establish a despotism
in this country, more cruel and more oppressive than ever
existed before/) — ' Guilty.'

" And as to these words, ( Not Guilty.'

" Of the charge, < Guilty.'

" And the Commission do therefore sentence him, tne said
Clement L. Yallandigham, a citizen of the State of Ohio, to
be placed in close confinement in some fortress of the United
States, to be designated by the commanding officer of this
Department, there to be kept during the continuance of the
war.

284 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" II. The proceedings, finding, and sentence in the fore-
going case are approved and confirmed, and it is directed that
the place of confinement of the prisoner, Clement L. Yallan-
digham, in accordance with said sentence, be Fort Warren,
Boston Harbor.

"By command of Major-General Burnside,

"LEWIS RICHMOND,
"Afrit. Alj.-General."

And now a few words in reference to the character of this
Military Commission by which Mr. Yallandigham was tried.
One only of the members was a citizen of Ohio; one was an
unnaturalised foreign adventurer; another had been convicted
of being the keeper of a disreputable house, while the Judge
Advocate subsequently pleaded guilty to certain " nimble caper-
ings " at the transom- light of a lady's bed-chamber in the
Burnett House. They had been fitly selected for their work,
and they did it accordingly.

The result of the trial was not made public for some days,
and in the meantime Mr. Y. was imprisoned in a room in the
attic of the Burnett House, where he wrote the following letter
to his wife : —

" IN BASTILE,"
No. 246 Burnett House, Cincinnati, O., May 14, 'Go.

"My Very, Very Dear, Dear Wife. —

" I am still here, ' awaiting orders/ in military phrase; but
as calm and unmoved as ever. My only concern is about you
and my dear, dear little man — not forgetting indeed any of my
household. But -I depend en you to be self-possessed and
patient, no matter what may happen to me. Be assured that
we shall meet again ; and further, that we shall see days of
prosperity, happiness, and exaltation by-and-bye ; and you and
my dear boy will live to share and enjoy them with me. You
have read all this in Scripture, in history, in fiction. True, you
did not dream of seeing it in my person or realising it in your

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 285

own; but it has turned out to be your destiny. Bear it all
like a woman — a heroine. Take care of my dear, dear boy
till I return. All goes well for the cause. The whole Demo
cratic and Conservative press is speaking out majestically, and
the leading Abolition presses are becoming dumb. Pendleton
and McLean still are with me most of the time. Other gentle
men also call every day. I enclose you Gen. E. S. Haines'
card which he sent me this afternoon. In a day or two at most
the result of the case will be made known. If Judge Leavitt
be honest and firm, he can save much trouble all around ; but
I doubt him much. No matter what disposition is* made of
me, my plans are all settled to meet each alternative : so be
calm and wait. Pendleton telegraphed you this afternoon that
the absurd Tortugas story was denied by authority. But I
was prepared even for that. Remember me to all friends —
enemies I will remember myself. Do not worry yourself in
the least, or for one moment, about what they may say now.
Your time will come. Meantime, and till I return, friends will
take care of you.

" Let my dear little boy go on with his studies, and teach
him Latin soon. Tell him to be a very good boy and be kind

and obedient to you and his aunt. My love to M , M ,

E , E , and to Ellen Bell. Many, many kisses for

yourself and Charlie.

" Most affectionately,

"YOUR HUSBAND/'

Two days after the trial before the Military Commission, the
Hon. Geo. E. Pugh, on behalf of Mr. Vallandigham, moved
for a writ of habeas corpus before Humphrey H. Leavitt, Judge
of the United States Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
No suspension of the privilege of the writ had at that time
been declared under the Act of Congress, and the pretence of a
Presidential right to suspend it had been exploded. Judge Lea
vitt required that notice of the application should be first given to
Burnside, who submitted an extraordinary paper justifying the
act, and claiming a constitutional and legal right to commit it,

286 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

as military commandant of the Department of the Ohio, which
he chose to regard as a vast camp, every citizen within its limits
being subject to military law. The case was opened 011 the llth
by Mr. Pugh, in an argument of great ability and consummate
eloquence. He was replied to on behalf of Burnside by two
members of the Cincinnati bar, in elaborate speeches, appropri
ated and modernised from the Crown lawyers of the reign of
Charles I. and James II. Mr. Pugh rejoined in an argument
of even greater ability than his first ; and Judge Leavitt, after
two or three days' consideration, and upon consultation with
Burnside, refused the writ upon the grounds, first, that the
arrest was legal ; and second, that though it had been illegal,
it was " morally certain that the writ would not be obeyed/7
and therefore ought not to be issued. Not since the days of
Empson, Dudley, or Jeffreys, had such judicial servility to
executive power been exhibited. Never, except upon the trial
of John Hampden, in the ship-money case, was a like opinion
pronounced from the bench. Let a single sentence suffice:
" The sole question," says this most righteous judge, "is whether
the arrest was legal; and as before remarked, its legality depends
on the necessity which existed for making it, and of that necessity,
for the reason stated, this Court cannot judicially determine."
And yet this monstrous doctrine is among the most moderate
utterances of the opinion. The twelve judges of the First
Charles were not more complaisant. " There is a rule of law,"
said one of them, " and a rule of government ; and many
things which may not be done by the rule of law, may be done
by the rule of government;" and they all agreed that "when the
good and safety of the kingdom in general is concerned, and
the whole kingdom in danger, the king is the sole judge both

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 287

of the danger, and when and how the same is to be prevented
and avoided/' The English judges held their offices during
the pleasure of their master the king; the American judge
held his for life, and under a written Constitution which
expressly declared that no citizen should be arrested " except
upon due process of law."

Two days after the refusal of the habeas corpus, the sentence
of the Military Commission and the approval of it by Burnsidc
were made public. According to this sentence, as we have
already seen, Mr. Vallandigham was condemned to close con
finement in Fort Warren, Boston harbor, during the war.
Imprisonment on the Dry Tortugas Islands had at first been
contemplated ; and many believed that sentence of death had
been Burnside's original purpose, from which he was deterred
only by the violence of the popular indignation which the
arrest had excited. Whether this be true or not, he certainly
insisted to a distinguished gentleman of Cincinnati that he
might justly put Mr. Vallandigham to death for a speech
delivered by him at Batavia in the previous April.

The violent arrest, illegal trial, and unjust conviction and
sentence of Mr. Vallandigham created intense excitement
throughout the country. The Democratic press denounced
the outrage in unmeasured terms, and very few even of the
Republican papers attempted to justify it — with a few excep
tions they expressed disapproval. Large meetings were held
in various places, and resolutions were adopted and speeches
made expressive of the strongest disapprobation. These
evidences that the spirit of liberty was not wholly extinct
in the land, these redeeming features in those dark days of
despotism, we would like to extensively publish, but our lim-

288 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ited space will not permit. A few of them, however, we here
place on record.

On Saturday, the 16th of May, a meeting was held in
Albany, New York, an account of which we take from the
Atlas and Argus : —

" One of the largest and most respectable meetings ever
held at the Capitol convened in the Park on Saturday night
for the purpose of protesting against the arrest, by order of
General Burnside, of Hon. Clement L. Yallandigham. By 8
o'clock the broad walk leading to the steps of the Capitol and
the adjacent grounds were densely packed with citizens, and soon
after the meeting was called to order by Henry S. Crandell,
Esq., on whose nomination Hon. Erastus Corning was chosen
President, who was assisted by a large number of Vice-Presi
dents and Secretaries.

" The meeting was one of the most enthusiastic and spirited,
the most determined in purpose of any ever held in the city of
Albany. It was a meeting of freemen in defence of the Con
stitution. It was composed of the intellect, the patriotism and
the vigor of the city. The list of officers embraces the most
valued names in our city, and are a guarantee of the character
of the assemblage and of its interest in the cause of law and
of order.

"The proceedings of the meeting speak for themselves.
We point to the letter of Gov. Seymour with especial gratifi
cation. It rings with the spirit of patriotism and of republican
vigor. It is to such utterances that we must look for the
upholding of liberty and the restoration of the Constitution.

"The speeches of Judge Parker and Hon. Francis Kernan
are in the same strain, thoughtful and impressive. The closing
speech of Mr. Murphy, of Erie, was eloquent and animated.

" The resolutions, it will be seen, are strikingly moderate in
expression, and reserved in all their allusions to the circumstances
which called the meeting together — the arrest of Yallandigham.
We respect the man in his misfortune ; but it was not so much
him as the cause of personal liberty and constitutional law
which was endangered in his person, that enlisted the sympa
thies and the interest of this meeting. The resolutions refer
to the services of the Democracy to the cause of the nation in

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 289

this crisis, and demand that the Administration shall be true
to the Constitution. They demand that it shall reverse the
action of the military tribunal, which has assumed to try a
citizen for the offence of free speech, and they direct that
copies of the resolutions be sent to the President.

" It was a glorious meeting. Its numbers, its spirit, and
its moderation angered the few Kepublicans in the city, who
attempted to disturb it by disorder. The Democrats disposed
of the disturbance and the disturbers with a strong hand and
in a summary way, and then went on calmly with their pro
ceedings.

" The meeting will be a historical one in the annals of the
Democratic party.

" Peter Cagger, Esq., stated that among the distinguished
gentlemen invited to address the meeting was his Excellency
Governor Seymour. Unfortunately, his Excellency could not
attend, but he had sent a letter, which he (Mr. C.) would read.
The following is the letter which, during its reading, was fre
quently applauded in the heartiest manner :

STATE OF NEW YORK,
EXECUTIVE DEPAKTMENT, ALBANY, May 16, 1863.

" I cannot attend the meeting at the Capitol this evening,
but I wish to state my opinion in regard to the arrest of Mr.
Vallandigham.

" It is an act which has brought dishonor upon our country ;
it is full of danger to our persons and to our homes ; it bears
upon its front a conscious violation of law and of justice. Act
ing upon the evidence of detailed informers, shrinking from
the light of day, in the darkness of night, armed men violated
the home of an American citizen, and furtively bore him away
to a military trial conducted without those safeguards known in
the proceedings of our judicial tribunals.

" The transaction involved a series of offences against our
most sacred rights. It interfered with the freedom of speech ;
it violated our rights to be secure in our homes against unrea
sonable searches and seizures ; it pronounced sentence without
a trial save one which was a mockery which insulted as well as
wronged. The perpetrators now seek to impose punishment,
not for an offence against law, but for a disregard of an invalid
order, put forth in an utter disregard of the principles of civil
liberty. If this proceeding is approved by the Government

19

290 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and sanctioned by the people, it is not merely a step towards
revolution, it is revolution ; it will not only lead to military
despotism, it establishes military despotism. In this aspect it
must be accepted, or in this aspect it must be rejected.

" If it is upheld, our liberties are overthrown. The safety
of our persons, the security of our property, will hereafter
depend upon the arbitrary wills of such military rulers as may
be placed over us, while our constitutional guaranties will be
broken down. Even now the Governors and the courts of
some of the great Western. States have sunk into insignificance
before the despotic powers claimed and exercised by military
men who have been sent into their borders. It is a fearful
thing to increase the danger which now overhangs us by
treating the law, the judiciary, and the authorities of States
with contempt. The people of this country now await with
the deepest anxiety the decision of the Administration upon
these acts. Having given it a generous support in the conduct
of the war, we now pause to see what kind of government it
is for which we are asked to pour out our blood and our
treasures.

" The action of the Administration will determine in the
minds of more than one-half of the people of the loyal States,
whether this war is waged to put down rebellion at the South,
or to destroy free institutions at the North. We look for its
decision with the most solemn solicitude.

" HORATIO SEYMOUR.
"To Peter Cagger, Solomon F. Higgins, Erastus Corning, Jr., Committee.

The Hon. John V. L. Pruyin offered a series of resolutions,
which were unanimously adopted, and able and eloquent
speeches were delivered by Judge Parker, Hon. Francis Ker-
nan, Jind Hon. John Murphy.

[From the New York World, May 19th.]
" GREAT MASS MEETING IN NEW YORK.

"VINDICATION OF LAW, FREE SPEECH, AND CONSTITUTIONAL

" The great mass meeting last evening at Union Square in
behalf of free speech, a free press, and personal rights, and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 291

having special reference to the vindication of these as violated
in the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham, proved a magnificent suc
cess both in numbers and enthusiasm. The arrangements were
under the auspices of the Democratic Union Association, and
though necessarily made somewhat hurriedly, owing to the
urgency of immediate action, were most excellent.

" It was estimated by the most candid persons, experienced
in the measurement of audiences, that there werepresent between
twenty-five and thirty thousand people. Four stands were
erected — one in front of the monument of Washington, one
facing it, one on the south side of Fourteenth street, and a
fourth in front of Dr. Cheever's church. One of these was
devoted entirely to German speakers. All the stands were
surrounded by a perfect mass of human beings packed in the
closest space, and extending as far out as the voice of the loud
est speaker could reach. The stands were hung with American
flags, and were furnished with several well-arranged lamps
each, which shed sufficient light to render the stands entirely
conspicuous, and in addition to these, Drummond lights were
placed in different locations, lighting up the whole scene
around.

" The meeting was quietly collecting on the east side of the
square at half-past seven. The German Legion pressed up from
the east side of the town and packed closely around the stands,
and at a quarter to eight they began to call for the lights and
music. Their numbers were at the end not less than eight
thousand.

" At stand No. 1 there was collected about an equal number.
A still larger and more dense crowd collected around the stand
in front of the Maison Doree, while stand No. 4 in front of
Springier Hotel was the last to light up, and massed about four
thousand.

" Besides the people collected at the stands, there were hun
dreds of others who could find no place to listen at these regu
lar places, and for that reason there were as many as a dozen
extemporised platforms about the sides of the square on wagons
or stoops, from which speakers of various calibre spoke to audi
ences of two or three hundred. At one place there was an
eloquent young man in soldier's uniform, telling a simple and
evidently truthful story, not as gleaned from newspapers, but
from his own experience of the campaign of the Army of the

292 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Potomac under McClellan, and expressing a patriotic regret
that the army now was not under the leadership in which the
soldiers had the confidence that they had been wont to feel for
their own commander. Occasionally there passed by a surly
loyalist who, shutting his eyes to the fact that the movement,
whether right or wrong, was at least tremendously formidable,
would express the regret as one was heard to do, that New
York was not yet sufficiently under martial law to prevent such
demonstrations of the people.

" The following resolutions were enthusiastically and unani
mously adopted:

" WHEREAS, Within a State where the courts of law are
open and their process unimpeded, soldiers under the command
of officers of the United States army have broken into the
residence and forcibly abducted from his home the Hon. Clem
ent L. Vallandigham ; and

"WHEREAS, A body of men styled a military commission
have arraigned before them and tried the said Hon. C. L. Val
landigham, a civilian and eminent public man, for words spoken
in the discussion of public questions before an assemblage of his
fellow-citizens; and

" WHEREAS, The said military commission have sentenced
him to a punishment as yet unknown, but which is to be
announced in some military order to be promulgated hereafter;
therefore

" Resolved, That we, the citizens of the city of New York
here assembled, denounce the arrest of Hon. Clement L. Val
landigham and his trial and sentence by a military commis
sion as a startling outrage upon the hitherto sacred rights of
American citizenship.

"Resolved, That the exigencies of civil war require the
fullest and freest discussion of public questions by the American
people, to the end that their temporary public servants may not
forget that they are the creatures of the public will and must
respect the obligations and duties imposed upon them by the
Constitution of their country, which is the authentic, solemn
expression of that will ; and that whenever upon the orders of
military commanders and from fear of their spies and informers,
American citizens not in the military service shall fail to
approve or disapprove measures of public policy, to denounce
or applaud the commander-in-chief, and to advocate peace or

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 293

war as their judgments may dictate, they have ceased to be
freemen and have already become slaves.

" Resolved, That we reverently cherish that great body of
constitutions, laws, precedents and traditions which constitute
us a free people, and that we hold those who designedly and
persistently violate them as public enemies.

" Resolved, That we are devotedly attached to the Union of
these States, and can see nothing but calamity and weakness in
its disruption, and shall continue to advocate whatever policy
we believe will result in the restoration of that Union.

" Resolved, That at a time when our fellow-citizens are fall
ing by thousands upon the battle-field, and human carnage has
become familiar, we implore the Federal authorities not to
adopt the fatal error that the system of imprisonment and
terrorism will subjugate the minds and stifle the voice of the
American people."

The crowds at the various stands were addressed by Hon.
E. P. Norton, J. A. McMaster, Esq., Judge McCunn, Hon.
W. B. Rankin, John Mullaly, Esq., Dr. Merkle, Mr. Daniel
Burdsall, Prof. Mason, and many others. "VVe regret exceed
ingly that we have not space for copious extracts from their
able and eloquent speeches.

The following account of the great meeting in Philadelphia
is from the Ag+of June 2d : —

" Yesterday evening one of the largest and most enthusiastic
political meetings which has ever been held in this city, made
old Independence Square ring with its cheers for that Consti
tution and Union which were first planned and formed upon
the very spot upon which stood the vast and swaying multi
tude. Towards dusk the various delegations from the Demo
cratic clubs, organised throughout the city, began to make their
appearance, and continued to arrive in constantly accumulating
numbers until at last the whole space of the large square was
covered with a great and eager crowd."

The Hon. Ellis Lewis, ex-Chief-Justice of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania, was called to the chair, and a large
number of Yice-Presidents and Secretaries were appointed.

294 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Resolutions similar in spirit to those passed at the New
York meeting were unanimously adopted. Speeches, bold,
able and eloquent, were then made by ex-Chief-Justice Lewis,
ex-Gov. Wm. Bigler, Hon. Charles J. Biddle, Hon. Peter
McCall, George. W. Biddle, Esq., George Northrop, Esq.,
Charles Ingersoll, Esq., and others.

After the reading of letters from Hon. G. M. Wharton,
Hon. Richard Vaux, and others, the meeting adjourned.

" Thus quietly and pleasantly ended one of the greatest
political demonstrations that Philadelphia has ever known. In
spite of all the predictions to the contrary, the whole affair
passed oif as peaceably and as orderly as even the most law-
abiding of citizens could wish. Indeed, but few meetings have
ever been held which have been characterised by so thorough a
disposition for order and deliberation."

The expression of public opinion through these meetings
and by the press in every part of the country produced a
powerful effect. It had been Burnside's intention to arrest all
the chief Democratic leaders of the Northwest, and in some
cases the orders had been made out. In alarm he was now
obliged to pause. His attempt soon after ^o suppress the
Chicago Times called forth so powerful an insurrectionary
feeling, that the President was forced to revoke the order.
Thus, through premature and too violent development, the
whole conspiracy to break down party opposition to the men
in power, and subjugate the Northwest, utterly failed.

In February, 1864, application for redress in behalf of
Mr. Vallandigham was made to the Supreme Court of the
United States, and although a notice of it now is out of the
order of time, still to close up the matter of his trial we will
here give it. Mr. Pugh applied for a writ of certiorari to

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 295

review and annul the proceedings and sentence of the military
commission before which Mr. Vallandigham had been tried ;
but that tribunal, having under the Constitution no appellate
jurisdiction of any kind, except in cases first ascertained by
law, and Congress not having given such jurisdiction in any
proceeding before courts-martial or military commission, was
obliged, and upon this ground expressly and alone, to deny
the writ. No American legislator had ever before imagined
that any mere citizen would, under any circumstances, be sub
jected to trial by military law in a State where judicial process
and courts had never been interrupted, and therefore no mode
of redress had ever been provided.

CHAPTER XIII.

EXILE AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1863.

ALL efforts for Mr. Vallandigham's release having failed, on
the 19th day of May, 1863, he was placed upon the gunboat
Exchange, commanded by Captain John Sebastian, to be trans
ferred to Louisville on his way South. His intercourse with
Captain Sebastian was pleasant. The Captain was a gentleman
in every sense of the word, and had a heart capable of appre
ciating the feelings of his prisoner. A regard and intimacy
grew up between them which lasted during Mr. Vallandig-
ham's life. Just before his death he gave a letter of introduc
tion to a friend to be presented to Captain Sebastian, and when
he did so he spoke in the warmest terms of the kindness and
consideration with which the Captain had treated him when he
took him a prisoner from Cincinnati to Louisville. It was the
19th of May when Mr. V. was put in charge of Captain
Sebastian, and at 11 o'clock on the 22d the steamer started
down the river. He was informed of the change of his sen
tence (from imprisonment in Fort Warren to banishment to the
South) upon the gunboat a day or two before. The morning
of his departure from Cincinnati, he drew up the following
address to the Democracy of Ohio : —

" MILITARY PRISON, CINCINNATI, OHIO, May 22, 1863.
" To the Democracy of Ohio :

"Banished from my native State for no crime save Demo-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 297

cratic opinions and free speech to you in their defence, and
about to go into exile, not of my own will but by the compul
sion of an arbitrary and tyrannic power which I cannot resist,
allow me a parting word. Because despotism and superior
force so will it, I go within the Confederate lines. I well under
stand the purpose of this order. But in vain the malice of
enemies shall thus continue to give color to the calumnies and
misrepresentations of the past two years. They little compre
hend the true character of the man with whom they have to
deal. No order of banishment, executed by superior force, can
release me from my obligations or deprive me of my rights as
a citizen of Ohio and of the United States. My allegiance to
my own State and Government I shall recognise, wheresoever
I may be, as binding in all things, just the same as though I
remained upon their soil. Every sentiment and expression of
attachment to the Union and devotion to the Constitution — to
my country — which I have ever cherished or uttered, shall
abide unchanged and unretracted till my return. Meantime, I
will not doubt that the people of Ohio, cowering not a moment
before the threats or the exercise of arbitrary power, will, in
every trial, prove themselves worthy to be called freemen.

"C. L. VALLANDIGHAM."

On his arrival at Louisville, Kentucky, he wrote a letter to
his wife dated May 23d, in which he said he " was in fine
spirits and enjoying excellent health." After remaining a few
hours at Louisville, he was started under a strong guard for
Murfreesboro', the outpost of the Northern army in Tennessee.
His journey was without adventure; he remained but a short
time in Nashville, and thence in a special train proceeded to
Murfreesboro'.

On the evening of May 24th he was brought to the house
of the Hon. Charles Ready, in Murfreesboro', Tennessee, then
the headquarters of the Provost-Marshal. It was there he first
met General Rosecrans, and the interview between them was
interesting, and, considering the circumstances, much more

298 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

agreeable than could have been expected. At the beginning
of the conversation between these distinguished men, the Gen
eral, without using any insulting expression to his prisoner,
manifested a disposition to lecture him for his opposition to
the war. This was promptly met in a firm and dignified man
ner by Mr. Vallandigham. The General was somewhat taken
aback for a moment, and then proceeded to give his views upon
the harm done, in his opinion, by men who were " disloyal "
in the North, and the hatred entertained against such men in
the army. He concluded by remarking, " Why, Sir, do you
know that unless I protect you with a guard my soldiers will
tear you to pieces in an instant ? " To this Mr. Vallandigham
in substance replied, " That, Sir, is because they are just as
prejudiced and ignorant of my character and career as yourself;
but, General, I have a proposition to make. Draw your
soldiers up in a hollow square to-morrow morning, and an
nounce to them that Vallandigham desires to vindicate him
self, and I will guarantee that when theyv have heard me
through they will be more willing to tear Lincoln and yourself
to pieces than they will Vallandigham." The General shook
his head and declined the experiment, saying "he had too
much regard for the life of the prisoner to try it." The conver
sation then became less personal in its nature, and Mr. Vallan-
digham's pleasant genial manner so won upon the gallant Gen
eral, that before they parted their interview assumed more the
appearance of a convivial meeting than that of a prisoner with
one having almost unlimited authority over his disposal.
About midnight the General arose to leave, and laying his hand
on Mr. V.'s shoulder, he said to Col. McK., of his staff, "He,
don't look a bit like a traitor, now does he, Joe?" They talked

LIFE OB"1 CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 299

together about four hours, and before the interview ended it
was very evident that the General regretted the duty that
devolved upon him of enforcing the penalty against his pris
oner. Upon parting he shook Mr. "Vallandigham warmly by
the hand.

At two o'clock in the morning of the 25th the clattering of
hoofs and the clank of sabres gave him notice to prepare for
further journeyings. Surrounded by quite a numerous body
of cavalry, commanded by Major Miles, the Provost-Marshal,
he went forth into the darkness towards the Confederate lines,
by way of the Shelbyville pike. After marching forward for
a little over an hour, a halt was made at the house of a Mr.
Butler to wait for daylight. At the first gleam of dawn the
escort and the prisoner resumed their march. Mr. Vallandig-
ham was composed and cheerful, and discussed his situation
indifferently as he rode along ; but according to the account of
one of his escort, was perceptibly affected when the extreme
outpost of the Union army was passed and the Confederate
picket-line was approached. He breakfasted at the house
of a Mrs. Alexander, while the officers in charge of him
went with a flag of truce to announce to the officer command
ing the Southern pickets the presence of Mr. Vallandigham,
and their desire to place him within the Confederate lines.
Considerable delay ensued. The officer having charge of the
Southern pickets seemed to doubt the propriety of permitting
Mr. V. to come within the lines, and word was sent to General
Bragg of the condition of affairs. Meanwhile the Federal
officer, who did not want any longer to be delayed with his
troublesome charge, took him to within a short distance of the
extreme picket-line of the Confederate forces, and left him at

300 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

the house of Jeremiah Odell. Before the Federal officers left
Mr. V. addressed these words to the Confederate soldier, a pri
vate in the 8th Alabama regiment, who had been sent to meet
him. " 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." The
Federal officers then bade him farewell and galloped away.
The soldier with whom he was now left seemed greatly per
plexed as to how he should act, and whether he was to con
sider his prisoner as a friend or an enemy. General Bragg's
headquarters were sixteen miles in the rear of the advanced
post at which Mr. Yallandigham was left, and it was several
hours before an answer came from the General authorising his
reception. " They were hours," said Mr. Yallandigham, " of
solitude, but calmly spent — the bright sun shining in the
clear sky above me, and faith in God and the future burning
in my heart." But it was a novel situation, and many strange
thoughts passed through his mind as he stood upon the neutral
ground between contending armies, not daring to go back and
uncertain whether he could go forward. About noon a mes
sage came from General Bragg to bring Mr. V. to his head
quarters ; and he was driven in an ambulance, under an escort
of cavalry, through numerous camps to Shelby ville. Soon
after dusk he arrived in the town and proceeded immediately
to the General's headquarters, where he was met in a kind and
courteous manner. In the evening he was directed to the
house of Mrs. Eakin, where a spacious and pleasant room had
been provided for him. " I retired at once," he wrote to a
friend, " having slept but half an hour since Saturday night,
and was awakened early next morning by the rays of a bright

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 301

Southern sun piercing the eastern window of my room. There
were no sentinels at my door, and I walked out unchallenged."
An interesting incident occurred to him whilst he was sojourn
ing in the neighborhood of Shelbyville. In company with
other gentlemen he was invited to spend the day at the house
of a very elegant and estimable lady living near that place.
After a day most agreeably spent in the society of several
charming ladies, he was preparing to leave, when his hostess
addressed him in substantially these words : — " Mr. Vallan-
digham, we expect you to remain with us. About a year ago I
had a singular presentiment, having often heard of you and
admired your noble and independent spirit, that you would be
either driven or banished from your home to the South, and I
then set about preparing a room for you. I have had it ready for
months, and now you must remain and occupy it, for it was
fitted up especially for your convenience and comfort." Sin
gular as this statement was, it was nevertheless true, for she
had mentioned it to others before he was sent South ; yet she
had never seen him until the day this conversation occurred.
Mr. Yallandigham received many similar invitations whilst in
the South, among them one from the Hon. Joshua Hill, of
Georgia, a gentleman who was an earnest supporter of the
Union during the whole war. In Shelbyville he remained a
week, passing most of the time in seclusion. On the 1st of
June he was directed to report on parole to General Whiting
at Wilmington, Korth Carolina. The next day, as he was
passing along through the camps, just before taking the train
for Chattanooga, friendly demonstrations were made towards
him by crowds of soldiers who had been informed who it was :
this was promptly suppressed by the officers, and was unex
pected and undesired by Mr. Vallandigham.

302 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Leaving Mr. Vallandigham for the present in the South, we
return to the State of Ohio. The Democratic State Convention
assembled at Columbus on the llth of June. In many respects
it was the most remarkable political meeting ever held in the
United States. Although but a delegate convention, the people
came up from every county to the number of more than twenty
thousand. Even from parts of the State traversed by railroads,
many travelled in wagons, and bringing provisions with them,
camped out. At daylight on the morning of the llth, three
several orators from as many different stands in the State House
yard were haranguing the people. The following accounts are
from papers published at the time. The Statesman says : —

"The Democratic State Convention of June 11, 1863, will
long be remembered by thousands who participated in the pro
ceedings of the day, as well as by the denizens of Columbus
and other lookers-on who may not have participated in its
proceedings nor sympathised in what was done. Such an out
pouring of the people was never witnessed in Ohio, and the
spirit and enthusiasm that prevailed were unparalleled.

" Early as Tuesday evening the people began to flock to
the capital from all parts of the State, and on Wednesday a
constant stream kept pouring into the city, until every place
where entertainment could be had was exhausted, and many of
the private residences as well as our public buildings were filled
to overflowing, to say nothing of the mass of people that
camped out in the outskirts of the city. When to this vast
crowd was added the number that came in on yesterday morn
ing from every section of the country, the assembled thousands
were here in such numbers that we will not attempt to estimate
them. Every conceivable mode of conveyance was brought
into requisition to bring the people to Columbus. They came
by railroad, in canal boats, in carriages, wagons, on horseback
and on foot, and but one heart and one spirit animated the
immense living and moving mass, and that was a determination
to do everything in the power of men to do to save, if possible,
the grand old Constitution and the Union, and their own per-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 303

sonal rights and liberties as citizens of Ohio. On "Wednesday
afternoon and evening impromptu speeches were made, not only
in the centre of the city to large crowds, but in many portions
of the town remote from the State House ; and on yesterday
morning early, the people appearing in vast cavalcades from
every road that leads to our city, was the signal for huzzas and
speaking to commence, which was inaugurated before 7 o'clock
in the morning and kept up all day. And as to the vast crowd,
what shall we say of it ? In enthusiasm it was beyond any
thing we have ever witnessed in the many meetings we have
attended in the past thirty years, and in its personal conduct
and demeanor we think we speak correctly and truly when we
say that a more orderly assemblage never met on any occasion
in Ohk>o"

The correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette (Republican)
says : —

" By the evening trains the crowd came pouring in as if the
flood would never cease. The hotels were already overflowing.
The clerk of the Neil House allowed me one room, to which
he had already absolutely assigned seventeen delegates, while
six more for the same room were marked ' coming/ A smart
shower did not seem to dampen the unmistakable enthusiasm
in the least. Crowds on the corners cheered for Yallandigham;
little boys perambulated the hotels peddling photographs of the
exile ; a meeting was improvised in the midst of the rain in
the State House yard, and patient .crowds, with and without
umbrellas, listened to a Mr. Mayo, who declared that it would
be the proud privilege, as well as the duty of the Convention,
to nominate that incorruptible statesman and fearless patriot,
Clement L. Yallandigham, and then, if military minions under
took to interfere with the election or inauguration, let them fall
back upon their own stout right arms and hearts, and defend
their constitutional rights: whereat the crowd cheered im
mensely. The enthusiasm is as unquestioned as the crowd.
As I write, the State House yard is black with the audience of
some c stumper' on the steps, and every minute or two there
comes a burst of cheering, and the air is darkened with a swarm
of waving hats. The streets are filled with the incoming dele
gates ; now and then files of straggling wagons, with a profusion

304 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of flags, pass along, and the inmates yell and wave their hats
Avith frantic earnestness — everywhere cheering and flags and
crowds of earnestly-talking and gesticulating humanity, and
shouts of ' Hurrah for Vallandigham ! ' There has been no
more enthusiastic convention here for years than this one now
promises to be."

After the organization of the Convention a ballot was taken
for Governor, and Mr. Vallandigham was nominated by a vote
of four hundred and eleven to thirteen. The nomination was
then made unanimous amid shouts of applause. Able and
eloquent speeches were made and spirited resolutions passed.
Among them w^ere the following : —

" That the arrest, imprisonment, and pretended trial and
actual banishment of C. L. Vallandigham, a citizen of the State
of Ohio, not belonging to the land or naval forces of the United
States, nor to the militia in actual service, by alleged military
authority, for no other pretended crime than that of uttering
words of legitimate criticism upon the conduct of the Admin
istration in power, and of appealing to the ballot-box for a
change of policy — said arrest and military trial taking place
where the courts of law are open and unobstructed, and for no
act done within the sphere of active, military operations in
carrying on the war — we regard as a palpable violation of the
provisions of the Constitution of the United States.

" That Clement L. Vallandigham was, at the time of his
arrest, a prominent candidate for nomination by the Demo
cratic party for the office of Governor of the State ; that the
Democratic party was fully competent to decide whether he
was a fit man for that nomination, and that the attempt to
deprive them of that right by his arrest and banishment was
an unmerited imputation upon their intelligence and loyalty,
as well as a violation of the Constitution.

" That \ve respectfully, but most earnestly, call upon the
President of the United States to restore Clement L. Vallan
digham to his home in Ohio, and that a committee of one from
each congressional district of the State, to be selected by the
presiding officer of this convention, is hereby appointed to pre
sent this application to the President."

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 305

In pursuance of this resolution, a committee composed of
some of the leading men of the State was appointed, who
repaired to Washington, and in person delivered the following
letter to the President : —

"WASHINGTON CITY, June 26, 1863.
"To His Excellency, the President of the United States .-—The
undersigned having been appointed a committee, under the
authority of the resolutions of the State Convention held at
the City of Columbus, Ohio, on the 1 1th inst., to communi
cate with you on the subject of the arrest and banishment of
Clement L. Vallandigham, most respectfully submit the follow
ing as the resolutions of that Contention bearing upon the
subject of this communication, and ask of your Excellency
their earnest consideration. And they deem it proper to state
that the Convention was one in which all parts of the State
were represented, and one of the most respectable as to num
bers and character, one of the most earnest and sincere in
the support of the Constitution and the Union, ever held in
that State."

Here were inserted the resolutions, some of which are
presented above.

" The undersigned, in the discharge of the duty assigned
them, do not think it necessary to reiterate the facts connected
with the arrest, trial, and banishment of Mr. Vallandigham —
they are well known to the President, and are of public history
— nor to enlarge upon the positions taken by the Convention,
nor to recapitulate the CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS which it
is believed have been violated : they have been stated at length,
and with clearness, in the resolutions which have been recited.
The undersigned content themselves with a brief reference to
other suggestions pertinent to the subject.

"They do not call upon your Excellency as suppliants,
praying the revocation of the order banishing Mr. Vallandig
ham as a favor ; but by the authority of a Convention repre
senting a majority of the citizens of the State of Ohio, they
respectfully ask it as a right due to an American citizen in whose
personal injury the sovereignty and dignity of the people of

20

306 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Ohio as a free State have been offended. And this duty they
perform the more cordially from thtf consideration that, at a
time of great national emergency, pregnant with danger to our
Federal Union, it is all-important that the true friends of the
Constitution and the Union, however they may differ as to
the mode of administering the Government, and the measures
most likely to be successful in the maintenance of the Consti
tution and the restoration of the Union, should not be thrown
into conflict with each other.

" The arrest, unusual trial, and banishment of Mr. Yallan-
digham, have created wide-spread and alarming disaffection
among the people of the State, not only endangering the har
mony of the friends of the Constitution and the Union, and
tending to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the State, but
also impairing that confidence in the fidelity of your Adminis
tration to the great landmarks of free government essential to
a peaceful and successful enforcement of the laws of Ohio.

" You are reported to have used, in a public communication
on this subject, the following language :

" ' It gave me pain when I learned that Mr. Vallandigham
had been arrested — that is, I was pained that there should
have seemed to be a necessity for arresting him ; and that it
will afford me great pleasure to discharge him so soon as I can
by any means believe the public safety will not suffer by it/

" The undersigned assure your Excellency, from our per
sonal knowledge of the feelings of the people of Ohio, that
the public safety will be far more endangered by continuing
Mr. Vallandigham in exile than by releasing him. It may
be true that persons differing from him in political views may
be found in Ohio, and elsewhere, who will express a different
opinion ; but they are certainly mistaken.

" Mr. Vallandigham may differ with the President, and
erven with some of his own political party, as to the true and
most effectual means of maintaining the Constitution and re
storing the Union ; but this difference of opinion does not
prove him to be unfaithful to his duties as an American citizen.
If a man, devotedly attached to the Constitution and the
Union, conscientiously believes that, from the inherent nature
of the Federal compact, the war, in the present condition of
things in this country, can not be used as a means of restoring
the Union ; or that a war to subjugate a part of the States, or

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 307

a war to revolutionise the social system in a part of the States,
could not restore, but would inevitably result in the final des
truction of both the Constitution and the Union — is he not to
be allowed the right of an American citizen to appeal to the
judgment of the people for a change of policy by the constitu
tional remedy of the ballot-box?

" During the war with Mexico many of the political oppo
nents of the Administration then in power thought it their
duty to oppose and denounce the war, and to urge before the
people of the country that it was unjust and prosecuted for
unholy purposes. With equal reason it might have been said
of them that their discussions before the people were calculated
to ' discourage enlistments/ ' to prevent the raising of troops/
and to ' induce desertions from the army/ and ' leave the Gov
ernment without an adequate military force to carry on the
war/

" If the freedom of speech and of the press are to be sus
pended in time of war, then the essential element of popular
government to effect a change of policy in the constitutional
mode is at an end. The freedom of speech and of the press is
indispensable, and necessarily incident to the nature of popular
government itself. If any inconvenience or evils arise from
its exercise, they are unavoidable.

" On this subject you are reported to have said, further :

" ' It is asserted, in substance, that Mr. Yallandigham was
by a military commander seized and tried for no other reason
than words addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the
course of the Administration, and in condemnation of the mil
itary order of the General. Now, if there be no mistake about
this — if there was no other reason for the arrest — then I
concede that the arrest was wrong. But the arrest, I under
stand, was made for a very different reason. Mr. Vallandig-
ham avows his hostility to the war on the part of the Union ;
and his arrest was made because he was laboring with some
effect to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage desertions
in the army, and to leave the rebellion without an adequate
military force to suppress it. He was not arrested because he
was damaging the political prospects of the Administration,
or the personal interest of the Commanding General, but be
cause he was damaging the army, upon the existence and vigor
of which the life of the nation depends. He was warring

308 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

upon the military, and this gave the military constitutional
jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. If Mr. Vallandighain was
not damaging the military power of the country, then his
arrest was made on a mistake of facts, which I would be glad
to correct on reasonable satisfactory evidence.7

"In answer to this, permit us to say, first, that neither the
charge, nor the specifications in support of the charge on which
Mr. Vallandigham was tried, impute to him the act of either
laboring to prevent the raising of troops, or to encourage de
sertions from the army. Secondly, no evidence on the trial
was offered with a view to support, or even tended to support,
any such charge. In wrhat instance and by what act did he
either discourage enlistments or encourage desertions from the
army ? Who is the man who was discouraged from enlisting,
and who was encouraged to desert, by any act of Mr. Vallan
digham ? If it be assumed that perchance some person might
have been discouraged from enlisting, or that some person
might have been encouraged to desert on account of hearing
Mr. Vallandigham's views as to the policy of the war as a
means of restoring the Union, would that have laid the foun
dation for his conviction and banishment? If so, upon the
same grounds every political opponent of the Mexican War
might have been convicted and banished from the country.

" When gentlemen of high standing and extensive influ
ence, including your Excellency, opposed in the discussions be
fore the people the policy of the Mexican War, were they
1 warring upon the military/ and did this ' give the military
constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon' them? And
finally, the charge in the specifications upon which Mr. Val
landigham was tried, entitled him to a trial before the civil
tribunals, according to the express provisions of the late Acts
of Congress, approved by yourself, of July 17, 1862, and
March 3, 1863, which were manifestly designed to supersede
all necessity or pretext for arbitrary military arrests.

" The undersigned are unable to agree with you in the
opinion you have expressed, that the Constitution is different
in time of insurrection or invasion from what it is in time of
peace and public security. The Constitution provides for no
limitation upon, or exceptions to, the guarantees of personal
liberty, except as to the writ of habeas corpus. Has the Pres
ident, at the time of invasion or insurrection, the right to en-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 309

graft limitations or exceptions upon these constitutional guar
antees whenever, in his judgement, the public safety requires
it?

" True it is, the article of the Constitution which defines
the various powers delegated to Congress, declares that the
' privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended
unless where, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety
may require it.' But this qualification or limitation upon this
restriction upon the powers of Congress has no reference to, or
connection with, the other constitutional guarantees of personal
liberty. Expunge from the Constitution this limitation upon
the power of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas corpus,
and yet the other guarantees of personal liberty would remain
unchanged.

"Although a man might not have" a constitutional right to
have an immediate investigation made as to the legality of his
arrest upon habeas corpus, yet his ' right to a speedy and public
trial by an impartial jury of the State and District wherein the
crime shall have been committed/ will not be altered ; neither
will his right to the exemption from ( cruel and unusual pun
ishments;' nor his right to be secure in his person, houses,
papers and effects against any unreasonable seizures and
searches ; nor his right to be deprived of life, liberty or pro
perty, without due process of law ; nor his right not to be held
to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous offence unless on
presentment or indictment of a grand jury, be in anywise
changed.

" And certainly the restriction upon the power of Congress
to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in time of insurrection or
invasion, could not affect the guarantee that the freedom of
speech and of the press shall not be abridged. It is sometimes
urged that the proceedings in the civil tribunals are too tardy
and ineffective for cases arising in times of insurrection or
invasion. It is a full reply to this to say, that arrests by civil
process may be equally as expeditious and effective as arrests
by military orders.

" True, a summary trial and punishment are not allowed in
the civil courts. But if the offender be under arrest and
imprisoned, and not entitled to a discharge under a writ of
habeas corpus, before trial, what more can be required for the
purposes of the Government ? . The idea that all the constitu-

310 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

tional guarantees of personal liberty are suspended throughout
the country at a time of insurrection or invasion in any part
of it, places us upon a sea of uncertainty, and subjects the life,
liberty and property of every citizen to the mere will of a mil
itary commander, or what he may say he considers the public
safety requires. Does your Excellency wish to have it under
stood that you hold that the rights of every man throughout
this vast country are subject to be annulled whenever you may
say that you consider the public safety requires it, in time of
invasion or insurrection ? You are further reported as having
said that the constitutional guarantees of personal liberty have
' no application to the present case we have in hand, because
the arrests complained of were not made for treason — that is,
not for the treason defined in the Constitution, and upon the
conviction of which the 'punishment is death — nor yet were
they made to hold persons to answer for capital or otherwise
infamous crime ; nor were the proceedings following in any
constitutional or criminaj sense legal prosecutions. The arrests
were made on totally different grounds, and the proceedings fol
lowing accorded with the grounds of the arrests/ &c. The
conclusion to be drawn from this position of your Excellency
is, that where a man is liable to a ' criminal prosecution/ or is
charged with a crime known to the laws of the land, he is
clothed with all the constitutional guarantees for his safety and
security from wrong and injustice ; but where he is not liable
to a l criminal prosecution/ or charged with any crime known
to the laws, if the President or any military commander shall
say that he considers that the public safety requires it, this man
may be put outside of the pale of the constitutional guaran
tees, and arrested without charge of crime, imprisoned without
knowledge what for, and any length of time, or be tried before
a court-martial and sentenced to any kind of punishment
unknown to the laws of the land which the President or the
military commander may see proper to impose.

"Did the Constitution intend to throw the shield of its
securities around the man liable to be charged with treason as
defined by it, and yet leave the man not liable to any such
charge unprotected by the safeguard of personal liberty and
personal security? Can a man not in the military or naval
service, nor within the field of the operations of the army, be
arrested and imprisoned without any law of the land to author-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 311

ise it ? Can a man thus in civil life be punished without any
law denning the offence and prescribing the punishment ? If
the President or a court-martial may prescribe one kind of pun
ishment unauthorised by law, why not any other kind ? Ban
ishment is an unusual punishment, and unknown to our laws.
If the President has the right to prescribe the punishment of
banishment, why not that of death and confiscation of property ?
If the President has the right to change the punishment pre
scribed by the court-martial from imprisonment to banishment,
why not from imprisonment to torture upon the rack, or exe
cution upon the gibbet ?

" If an indefinable kind of constructive treason is to be in
troduced and engrafted upon the Constitution, unknown to the
laws of the land, and subject to the will of the President when
ever an insurrection or invasion shall occur in any part of this
vast country, what safety or security will be left for the liber
ties of the people ?

" The i constructive treason J that gave the friends of free
dom so many years of toil and trouble in England, was in
considerable compared to this; The precedents which you
make will become a part of the Constitution for your succes
sors, if sanctioned and acquiesced in by the people now.

"The people of Ohio are willing to co-operate zealously
with you in every effort warranted by the Constitution to
restore the Union of the States, but they cannot consent to aban
don those fundamental principles of civil liberty which are
essential to their existence as a free people.

" In their name we ask that, by a revocation of the order
of his banishment, Mr. Vallandigham may be restored to the
enjoyment of those rights of ^vhich they believe he has been
unconstitutional ly deprived.

" We have the honor to be

"Respectfully "yours, &c.

41 M. BIRCHARD, Chair'n, 19th Dist. JAS. R. MORRIS, 15th Dist.

DAVID A. HOUK, Sec'y, 3d Dist, GEO. S. CONVERSE, 7th Dist

GEO. BLISS, 14th Dist. WARREN P. NOBLE, 9th Dist.

T. W. BARTLEY, 8th Dist, GEO. H. PENDLETON, 1st Dist.

W. J. GORDON, 18th Dist. W. A. HUTCHINS, llth Dist.

JOHN O'NEILL, 13th Dist. ABNER L. BACKUS, 10th Dist.

C. A. WHITE, 6th Dist. J. F. McKiNNEY, 4th Dist.

W. E. FINCK, 12th Dist. L. C. LEBLOND, 5th Dist.

ALEXANDER LONG, 3d Dist. Louis SCH^FER, 17th Dist."
J. W. WHITE, 16lh Dist.

312 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

A similar committee was appointed by the Albany meeting,
who presented to the President resolutions and a letter of like
import with the above. To both committees Mr. Lincoln
returned separate replies in writing, justifying the outrage, and
insisting gravely upon his constitutional right to commit and
repeat it. In these extraordinary letters he maintained the
whole doctrine of " military necessity," insisting that the Con
stitution in time of war varied " in its application " from the
Constitution in time of peace, so that its limitations upon
power, and the rights secured by it to the States and the people,
ceased, in cases of rebellion and invasion involving the public
safety, to be applicable, and that " the man whom for the time
the people had under the Constitution made the Commander-
in-chief of the army and navy, was the man" who was tq
decide* when the public safety was involved, and what in that
case ought to be done. He went further, and forgetting his
high position as President, resorted to subterfuge and prevari
cation in order to justify the particular act of which the com
mittees complained. Wholly ignoring the. " charge and speci
fication" upon which alone Mr. Yallandigham had been
arrested and subjected to trial by the military commission, and
conceding in so many words that if the arrest were made for
language addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the
Administration, or in condemnation of the military order of
the General, " it was wrong," he did not scruple to assert that
Mr. Vallandigham was arrested " because he was laboring with
some effect to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage deser
tions from the army, and to leave the rebellion without an
adequate military force to suppress it." No such charge had
been • referred against him, and it was without the slightest

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 313

foundation in truth. He further charged Mr. Vallandigham
with being in complicity with armed combinations to resist the
conscription 'and the arrest of deserters, and with numerous acts
of assassination that had been committed — overt acts of crime,
easy of proof if true, yet constituting no part of the charge
and specification before the military commission. "With a
knowledge too that Mr. Vallandigham's speeches, including
the very one for which ostensibly he had been arrested, were
full of injunctions to obey all laws and to respect all rightful
authority, Mr. Lincoln did not hesitate to add that with all
these acts of violence and resistance " staring him in the face,
he [Mr. V.] had never uttered a word of rebuke or counsel
against them." Yet after all these assertions he declared in
his reply to the Albany committee, and repeated it in his letter
to the committee from Ohio, that Mr. Vallandigham's arrest
" had been for prevention, and not for punishment ; not so much
for what had been done, as for what probably would be done."
He concluded his letter to the Ohio committee with an offer to
revoke the order of banishment, upon the condition that the
several members of the committee should bind themselves to
certain propositions in writing submitted by him, which implied
nothing less than support of the war and indorsement of the
Administration ; but he added with despotic insolence, that " in
regard to Mr. Vallandigham and all others, he would here
after as heretofore, do so much as the public safety might seem
to require." To the propositions thus made, the committee
replied that they " were not authorised to enter into any bar
gains, terms, contracts, or conditions with the President of the
United States to procure the release of Mr. Vallandigham."
The entire correspondence was conducted on the part of both
committees with great dignity and consummate ability.

314 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

•
111 the meantime Mr. Vallandigham was on his way from

the South to Canada, which, before leaving Cincinnati, he had
resolved to reach at the earliest moment ; and in case he found
blockade-running from the eastern ports impracticable or too
hazardous, then to cross the Mississippi and make his way
through Texas to Matamoras, and thence by steamer to Ha
vana and Halifax. But at that time vessels were running to
and from Wilmington almost with the regularity of packets ;
and after a sojourn there of a few days, he took passage on the
steamer Cornubia, Captain Gayle, and on the evening of the
17th of June ran out in safety through the blockading
squadron, and arrived in Bermuda on the 20th. The follow
ing incident occurred on the passage. Ono morning a steam
ship hove in sight and bore down upon the vessel on which he
had embarked. On nearer approach it was apparent that it
was a United States man-of-war. On board the vessel there
was great alarm, for not only had the Captain many things
which were contraband of war, but also as passengers several
Southern officers and Confederate agents who no doubt had
important papers with them. It was soon evident that the
war steamer was the faster sailer, and visions of imprisonment
for himself and confiscation of his vessel filled the mind of the
Captain. Most of the passengers were equally alarmed. The
Captain rushed into the cabin to consult Mr. Vallandigham.
Mr. V. inquired whether he had any British uniforms on
board, and being informed that he had, suggested that he
should clothe as many of his men as possible in these uniforms,
and parade them up and down on deck, so as to produce the
impression that his steamer was an English transport with
troops aboard. The experiment was immediately tried and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 315

succeeded to a charm. The Captain of the American ship,
perceiving the brilliant scarlet of the British army, and taking
it for granted that the vessel was loaded with troops from
England destined for some part of the British possessions,
tacked and bore away, much to the relief of the Captain of the
blockade-runner and most of his passengers. A false and
ridiculous account of this affair was published by the enemies
of Mr. Vallandigham several years afterwards, in which it was
stated that he was greatly alarmed on that occasion, and so
overjoyed at his escape from capture that he shed tears and
clasped the Captain of the vessel in warm embrace. There
was not a word of truth in this. A moment's reflection will
show its absurdity. Mr. Vallaiidigham had no cause for
alarm ; his sentence was that he should be imprisoned if he
came within the Federal lines, otherwise he was to be unmo
lested. His being found in a vessel going to Canada would
not render him liable to any punishment. As to the story of
childish joy at his* escape and the ridiculous mode of exhibit
ing it, no one acquainted with his perfect coolness in circum
stances the most exciting will be so credulous as to believe it.
His capture would have resulted only in annoyance and tem
porary delay in reaching his place of destination.

In Bermuda he spent ten days very pleasantly, and then
by steamer went to Halifax, landing on the 5th of July. From
Halifax by way of Truro he travelled to Pictou, and thence by
steamer up the Gulf and river Saint Lawrence to Quebec,
where, as in Bermuda and at Halifax, he was cordially and
honorably received. A correspondent of a New York paper,
writing from Montreal, July 14, says : " As soon as it was
known that Mr. Yallandigham was in Canada, Englishmen,

316 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. V ALL AN DIG-HAM.

Scotchmen, and Irishmen, who, as the sons of men that for five
hundred years fought for the trial by jury, knew the value
of Magna Charta and of Habeas Corpus, and of the Petition
of Eight, met almost spontaneously to bear tribute to him in
whose person these three great bulwarks of British liberty had
been violated." At the Club House he was tendered and ac
cepted a very handsome entertainment, at which he met a
number of the most distinguished gentlemen of Canada. The
speech he made on that occasion is thus referred to by the same
correspondent : —

" Mr. Vallandigham. confined his remarks to general prin
ciples of liberty, law, Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, with
out any personal applications to his own case, and dwelt upon
how much the framers of the Constitution were guided by the
British Barons of Runnymede, my Lord Coke, the extorters
of the Right of Petition from King Charles, the persevering
energy that drew out that British writ of liberty, the Habeas
Corpus, &c. His remarks were admirable, and did honor to
the American name. The people wrere urgent that the demon
stration should be public, but Mr. Vallandigham would not
consent to it. All Canada would have turned out if there had
been time, to testify through him to Magna Charta and Habeas
Corpus. At 11 P. M. he went off in an extra train which
Mr. Bridges had provided for him.

"Our Montreal gentlemen were delighted with Mr. Val-
landigham's understanding and comprehension of the great
struggles we had in England to preserve British liberty, and
which had cost our fathers two revolutions, one of blood and
one of peace, in which we had dethroned a king and then a
queen. One of the speakers, Mr. R , said, in compli
ment, the pleasure of meeting Mr. Vallandigham would fully
repay his voyage across the Atlantic."

Mr. Vallandigham arrived at Niagara Falls, Canada West,
on the 15th of July, and stopped at the Clifton House. The
folloAving account of his arrival is given by a correspondent of
the Chicago Times : —

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 317

" CLIFTON HOUSE, NIAGARA FALLS, C. W.,
July 16, 1863.

" Mr. Vallandigham arrived here yesterday morning. The
appearance of his name upon the register caused the most in
tense excitement among the guests. The news of his arrival
spread rapidly in the vicinity, and during yesterday and to-day
hundreds of visitors called to pay their respects to him.
Several parties of ladies and gentlemen have come over from
the American shore.

" The mighty cataract and the grand mountain scenery are
forgotten, the delightful drives are abandoned. The exiled
statesman is the absorbing subject of interest and considera
tion. Eager groups, anxious to learn every particular of his
eventful career, collect around the favored few who have been
honored with personal interviews with the foremost man of the
age. Crowds press upon him whenever his presence is acces
sible, to congratulate him upon his sublime moral achieve
ments and political prospects. i

(f His manners are modest and unassuming. He has a kind
word and genial greeting for all his friends. Yet his manners
are not wanting in dignity befitting his position ; but the dig
nity is blended with cordial suavity, so that while he com
mands respect from every one, he also excites a feeling akin to
love in all.

" Mr. Vallandigham was treated in all respects as a pris
oner of war in the South, and permitted to depart on giving
his parole. He succeeded in running the blockade from Wil
mington, North Carolina, about the middle of June, in a small
steamer which took him to Bermuda. From the latter place
he proceeded in a small steamer to Halifax, where he arrived
safely a few days ago, and took passage up the river St. Law
rence to Quebec, whence he came by rail to Clifton.

" Hon. D. W. Yoorhees, of Indiana, and Hon. Richard T.
Merrick, of Chicago, were among the first to welcome him on
his arrival."

Mr. Vallandigham immediately issued the following ad
dress to the Democracy of Ohio, accepting the nomination for
Governor, and defining his position : —

318 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" NIAGAKA FALLS, CANADA WEST,

July 15, 1863.
" To the Democracy of Ohio :

"Arrested and confined for three weeks in the United
States, a prisoner of State ; banished thence to the Confederate
States, and there held as an alien enemy and prisoner of war,
though on parole, fairly and honorably dealt with and given
leave to depart, — an act possible only by running the block
ade at the hazard of being fired on by ships flying the flag of
my own country, — I found myself first a freeman when 011
British soil. And to-day, under protection of the British flag,
I am here to enjoy, and in part to exercise, the privileges and
rights which usurpers insolently deny me at home. The shal
low contrivance of the weak despots at Washington, and their
advisers, has been defeated. Nay, it has been turned against
them ; and I, who for two years was maligned as in secret
league with the Confederates, having refused when in their
midst, under circumstances the most favorable, either to iden
tify myself with their cause or even so much as to remain,
preferring rather exile in a foreign land, return now with alle
giance to my own State and Government, unbroken in word,
thought or deed, <md with every declaration and pledge to you
while at home, and before I was stolen away, made good in
spirit and to the very letter.

" Six weeks ago, when just going into banishment, because
an audacious but most cowardly despotism compelled it, I ad
dressed you as a fellow-citizen. To-day, and from the very
place then selected by me, but after wearisome and most peril
ous journey ings for more than four thousand miles by land
and upon the sea — still in exile, though almost in sight of my'
native State — I greet you as your representative. Grateful
certainly I am for the confidence in my integrity and patriotism
implied by the unanimous nomination as candidate for Gov
ernor of Ohio which you gave me while I was yet in the Con
federate States. It was not misplaced; it shall never be
abused. But this ia the least of all considerations in times
like these. I. ask no persona] sympathy for the personal
wrong. No, it is the cause of constitutional liberty and private
right cruelly outraged beyond example in a free country, by
the President and his servants, which gives public significancy
to the action of your convention. Yours was indeed an act of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 319

justice to a citizen who for his devotion to the rights of the
States and the liberties of the people, had been marked for
destruction by the hand of arbitrary power. But it was much
more. It was an act of courage worthy of the heroic ages of
the world ; and it was a spectacle and a rebuke to the usurping
tyrants who, having broken up the Union, would now strike
down the Constitution, subvert your present Government, and
establish a formal^ and proclaimed despotism in its stead. You
are the RESTORERS AND DEFENDERS OF CONSTITUTIONAL
LIBERTY, and by that proud title history will salute you.

" I congratulate you upon your nominations. They whom you ,
have placed upon the ticket with me are gentlemen of character,
integrity, ability, and of tried fidelity to the Constitution, the
Union, and to liberty. Their moral and political courage — a
quality always rare, and now the most valuable of public vir
tues — is beyond question. Every way, all these were nomina
tions fit to be made. And even jealousy I am sure will now
be hushed, if I especially rejoice with you in the nomination
of Mr. Pugh as your candidate for Lieutenant-Governor and
President of the Senate. A scholar and a gentleman, a soldier
in a foreign Avar, and always a patriot ; eminent as a lawyer,
and distinguished as an orator and a statesman, I hail his
acceptance as an omen of the return of the better and more
virtuous days of the Republic.

" I endorse your noble platform — elegant in style, admir
able in sentiment. You present the true issue, and commit
yourselves to the great mission just now of the Democratic
party — to restore and make sure first the rights and liberties
declared yours by your Constitutions. It is in vain to invite the
States and people of the South to return to a Union without a
Constitution, and dishonored and polluted by repeated and most
aggravated exertions of tyrannic power. It is base in your
selves, and treasonable to your posterity, to surrender these
liberties and rights to the creatures whom your own breath
created and can destroy. Shall there be free speech, a free
press, peaceable assemblages of the people, and a free ballot
any longer in Ohio ? Shall the people hereafter, as hitherto,
have the right to discuss and condemn the principles and
policy of the party — the ministry — the men who for the time
conduct the Government, — to demand of their public servants
a reckoning of their stewardship, and to place other men and

320 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

another party in power at their supreme will and pleasure?
Shall Order Thirty-eight or the Constitution be the supreme
law of the land ? And shall the citizen any more be arrested
by an armed soldiery at midnight, dragged fiom wife and child
and home to«a military prison ; thence to a mock militaiy trial;
there condemned, and then banished as a felon for the exercies
of his rights ? This is the issue : you have nobly met it. It is
the very question of free, popular government itself. It is the
whole question : upon one side liberty, on the other despotism.
The President, as the- recognised head of his party, accepts the
issue. "Whatever he wills, that is law. Constitutions, State
and Federal, are nothing ; acts of legislation nothing ; ' the
judiciary less than nothing. In time of war there is but one
will supreme — his will; but one law — military necessity,
and he the sole judge. Military orders supersede the Consti
tution, and military commissions usurp the places of the ordi
nary courts of justice in the land. Nor are these mere idle
claims. For two years and more, by arms they have been
enforced. It was the mission of the weak but presumptuous
Burnside — a name infamous forever in the ears of all lovers
of constitutional liberty — to try the experiment in Ohio, aided
by a Judge whom I name not, because he has brought foul
dishonor upon the judiciary of my country. In youi hands
now, men of Ohio, is the final issue of the experiment. The
party of the Administration have accepted it. By pledging
support to the President, they have justified his outrages upon
liberty and the Constitution ; and whoever gives his vote for
the candidates of that party commits himself to every act of
violence and wrong on the part of the Administration which he
upholds ; and thus, by the law of retaliation, which is the law of
might, would fairly forfeit his own right to liberty, personal and
political, whensoever other men and another party shall hold
the power. Much more do the candidates themselves. Suffer
them not, I entreat you, to vade the issue ; and by the judg
ment of the people we will abide.

"And now, finally, let me ask: what is the pretext for all
the monstrous acts and claims of arbitrary power which you
have so boldly and nobly denounced ? * Military necessity/
But if, indeed, all these be demanded by military necessity,
then, believe me, your liberties are gone, and tyranny is per
petual. For, if this civil war is to terminate only by the sub-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGKEAM. 321

jugation or submission of the South to force of arms, the in
fant of to-day will not live to see the end of it. No, in
another way only can it be brought to a close. Travelling a
thousand miles and more through nearly one-half of the Con
federate States, and sojourning for a time at widely different
points, I met not one man, woman or child who was not
resolved to perish rather than yield to the pressure of arms,
even in the most desperate extremity. And whatever may and
must be the varying fortune of the war, in all which I recog
nise the hand of Providence pointing visibly to the ultimate
issue of this great trial of the States and people of America,
they are better prepared now every way to make good their
inexorable purpose than at any period since the beginning of
the struggle. These may, indeed, be unwelcome truths, but
they are addressed only to candid and honest men. Neither,
however, let me add, did I meet any one, whatever his opinions
or his station, political or private, who did not declare his readi
ness, when the war shall have ceased and invading armies been
withdrawn, to consider and discuss the question of reunion.
And who shall doubt the issue of the argument ? I return,
therefore, with my opinions and convictions as to war and
peace, and my faith as to final results from sound policy and
wise statesmanship, not only unchanged, but confirmed and
strengthened. And may the God of heaven and earth so rule
the hearts and minds of Americans everywhere that a Consti
tution maintained, a Union restored, and liberty henceforth
made secure, a grander and nobler destiny shall yet be ours
than that even which blessed our fathers in the first two ages
of the Republic.

*' C. L. VALLAKDIGHAM."

This address was received with unbounded enthusiasm, and
the campaign in Ohio was entered upon with a spirit and
energy unprecedented in the history of the country, exceeding
even the memorable campaign of 1840. Meetings were held
throughout the State, attended by immense multitudes of
people, and addressed by earnest and able speakers. From the
papers of the times we make the following extracts, illustrating
the intense feeling that everywhere prevailed.
21

322 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. "\JALLANDIGHAM.

[From the Crisis, August 5th.]
"ROUSING MEETINGS EVERYWHERE.

" Such meetings as are now seen of the Democracy every
where in this State have never before been witnessed; were
not even approached in the days of the political revolution
of 1840. At Bellefontaine, on the 29th, the throng swelled
to fifteen thousand. At Marysville, Union county, on Thurs
day, some ten thousand were present; and on Friday, at Dela
ware, the concourse ranged from fifteen to twenty thousand,
with thirteen hundred vehicles in procession, and regiments of
voters on horseback. The tide is up, and grows with every
wave. The people are awake to the fact that their liberties are
assailed, and it devolves upon themselves to save them.

" At Circleville, on Saturday, the meeting reached 40,000 !
as estimated by those competent to judge. Mr. Pugh, Judge
Green, and Mr. Fink, addressed this vast crowd, and the enthu
siasm and earnestness manifested spoke of a revolution in
popular sentiment which would shake an empire already pro
claimed."

[From the same, August 12th.]
" DEMOCRATIC MEETINGS.

" Hereafter we will endeavor to give more attention to an
account of the various meetings in the State, and the way in
which the noble redemption of the State from Abolition mis
rule goes on. Those abroad may rest assured that our speakers
find the people everywhere ready to meet them even more than
half-way. The most intense earnestness prevails in reference
to the great cause. Men's doubts give way before the manifest
determination of the people to assume full responsibility for
doing anything that becomes men and citizens to defend and
maintain the principles of the Union. The time for intimida
tion has about passed. If there are any cowards in our ranks,
they are not at home. We hope it is felt, and believe it is,
from one extremity of the State to the other, that the triumph
of Vallandigham will be the greatest ever achieved in the
name of civil and individual freedom. Feeling thus, it is no
wonder that at every meeting l an avalanche of the people ;
is there !

" The largest meeting ever held in Hancock County gathered
at Finlay on the 1st. Over 14,000 people were there, and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 323

were ably addressed by Hon. F. C. LeBlond, the member of
Congress of that district, and Colonel Mungen, in English,
and Judge Lang of Tiffin, in German. They were all able
and eloquent expositions of principle, and elicited repeated
bursts of enthusiasm. The Democratic county convention met
the same day, and nominated a most excellent ticket. Probably
not a hundred were present who lived outside of the county,
as the notice was short, and no half-fare trains running.

" On Tuesday, 4th, the meeting at Troy, Miami County,
was an immense success, far surpassing the expectations of the
most sanguine. Hon. George E. Pugh and William Follet
were the principal speakers.

" On the same day (4th) from three to five thousand as
sembled in council at Toledo. It was at this meeting that the
noble letter of the gallant Yallandigham was read, amid the
most intense applause. Hon. S. S. Cox addressed the out-door
crowd, while Hon. Mr. Pendleton enchained the attention of
the packed audience in the largest hall in the city. The
Brought meeting of two weeks previous was thrown entirely in
the shade.

"At Kenton, Hardin County, the meeting was an immense
affair — the lowest estimate being twenty-five thousand. One
thousand horsemen were in the procession ; also two hundred
ladies, adorned with scarfs of red, white, and blue, with the
names of Yallandigham and Pugh on them. The procession
Avas seven miles in length, with moving banners and forests of
hickories. Two stands were in full blast. The speakers were
Pugh, Follet, LeBlond, Armstrong, and Shelby. An im
mense meeting was also held at night.

" At Upper Sandusky, on the 7th, was held the largest
meeting that ever met in Northern Ohio. From forty to fifty
thousand were there. Twenty-four large hickory poles had
been raised in the town and bore aloft the American flag, in
scribed Vallandigham and Pugh, Free Speech, Free Press,
Free Discussion, the Constitution and Union forever."

[From the same, Aug. 19.]

"GREAT DEMOCRATIC DEMONSTRATIONS IN OHIO.

"If large, enthusiastic and spontaneous meetings of the
people are any indication of public feeling, Ohio would to
morrow, if an election were held, give Mr. Vallandigham and

324 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

the whole Democratic State Ticket at least thirty thousand
majority on the home vote.

" Last week, after our return from Niagara Falls and New
York, finding things all right in our office, we concluded to
take a run up into Knox and Ashland Counties, where Demo
cratic meetings were announced, to see how they looked and
judge for ourself how the canvass was progressing.

" We arrived at Frederick town, a few miles north of Mt.
Vernon, late in the afternoon of Tuesday, and to our utter sur
prise found an assemblage of from 7,000 to 10,000 people,
gentlemen and ladies. Such enthusiasm we had never before
witnessed, and we soon found ourself handed over the heads
of the people to the speakers' stand. It made our head fairly
swim on casting our eyes over the excited and immense throng
before us. The meeting had already been addressed by A.
Banning Norton, Esq., an Old Line Whig who has joined the
Democratic hosts in this campaign for ' personal liberty;' by
Dr. Olds, the Hon. James R. Morris, and the able and eloquent
T. J. Kenny, State Senator of the Ashland and Richland
District.

" Never before did we see such an interest taken in a candi
date as is felt in Mr. Vallandigham. It puts us very much
in mind of the outburst for Kossuth 011 his arrival in this
country to escape arrest by the Hainaus of Austria. If Mr.
Vallandigham could be brought into Ohio, or any portion of
the North, such demonstrations of popular applause as would
be witnessed would surpass anything the world ever saw !
Thank God, the spirit of liberty burns as brightly as ever in
the American bosom, and let the American Hainaus not sup
pose for a moment that they can suppress it. They can only
intensify it by pressure, and nothing more.

" After the meeting in the afternoon closed, the young ladies
at the residence of Mr. Rankin sang several of the finest polit
ical songs we ever heard ; ' Vallandigham and Pugh ; ' i The
Constitution as it is/ &c.

" The next day the speakers, with the exception of Mr.
Norton, proceeded to Haysville, Ashland County, where a simi
lar crowd of thousands were already congregated on their
arrival. The same speakers were present, including Judge
Bliss, the 'just judge/ elected to Congress from that District.
Here we found the same wild enthusiasm for Vallandigham as

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 325

in Knox County, participated in by all classes, male and female,
old and young. In fact, language cannot do justice to what
we saw and heard at these two meetings, while order the most
complete was at all times observed. In fact, the excitement
seemed more like a religious than a political enthusiasm, in
which men, women and children seem to take an equal interest.
" If the Democracy of Knox and Ashland can be beaten in
good fellowship and enthusiasm, our majorities in Ohio are
certain to reach fifty thousand."

[From the same of the same date.]
" VALLANDIGHAM.

" From all points in the State come to us sounds of ' the
increasing tread J of the Yallandigham Democracy. There is
no rebutting the testimony borne on every breeze that Yallan-
digham has become the watchword of civil liberty, and that
the people are gathering about his banner as flocked the legions
to Tell. And strange and hopeless indeed would be the infat
uation of Americans could they fail to come ( with shout and
song' to the support of him in whose person their every title
to freedom and to citizenship has been violated and outraged.
But there is no mistaking ' the signs of the times/ The people
are awake not only to their own responsibility, to their own
danger, but to the inspiration which in all ages has gathered
ahout a chieftain struck by the hand of power for apostleship
of human freedom and personal enfranchisement. Almost
without notice in any part of the State, thousands flock to a
Yallandigham. meeting."

We could fill scores of pages with accounts of meetings
like these held in every part of the State. These we have
given for the purpose of exhibiting the earnest spirit and deep
enthusiasm that pervaded the people.

Mr. Yallandigham remained at Niagara Falls till some time
in August. The following notice of him appears in the cor
respondence of the New York News : —

326 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" NIAGARA FALLS, August 1, 1863.
"To the Editors of the New York News:

"An hour ago I ferried over Niagara river below the Falls,
bathed my brow in the mist of the mighty cataract, and here I
stand upon British soil, an unwilling witness to the humiliating
fact that at least one American citizen here is more free beneath
the protecting folds of the cross of St. George than he was upon
his own native soil beneath the Stars and Stripes.

"I have just paid my respects to that fearless champion of
free speech, the first man whom a hostile Administration under
the plea of ' military necessity ' ever banished from his State to
another of that portion of the country which the banishing
power still claims as Federal territory, for the bold and fearless
but truthful criticism of its policy.

" I found Mr. Yallandigham at Niagara Falls (Canada side,
of course), at the hotel of Mr. Davis, near ' Table Eock/ he
having left the Clifton House a few days since.

" My card secured me an immediate reception, and I was
agreeably surprised to find him in such excellent health and
spirits. Never in the proudest day of his power in Congress
had I seen him more hopeful and tranquil. His social and
commanding presence, his well-rounded, symmetrical figure,
clear complexion, expressive eye, resolute mouth and chin, a
forehead denoting high intellectual powers, presented an en
semble that had not suffered by its passage through ' Dixie/

" Since Mr. Vallandigham's arrival at the Falls, some three
weeks since, the visits received have been a perfect ovation.
Over fifteen hundred persons, distinguished men from all
sections, have 'been here, and their errand has been no idle
compliment. He has more honest friends to-day, exiled as he
is, than the whole tribe of his maligners from tide-waiter up to
the noisiest Abolitionist who is plundering the people. It is
remarkable that he bears up under this tax upon physical
energy so well."

•

Towards the last of the month Mr. Vallandigham, after
•a brief tour down the lakes and the river St. Lawrence to
Montreal and Q selected Windsor, in Canada West, op

posite D Michigan^ as his place of sojourn. It was easy

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 327

of access and convenient for communication with Ohio and
the Northwest, while the beautiful Detroit river and Lakes
Erie and St. Clair, full of fish and fowl, and the thick forests
around abounding in game, could afford healthful exercise for
the body and pleasure to the mind. He arrived on the 24th,
and the next day was visited by a large delegation of his
fellow-citizens from Detroit, who gave him a cordial welcome.'
On their behalf Judge O'Flynn addressed him thus : —

" On behalf of the gentlemen present, your friends and
fellow-citizens of Detroit, who have thus gathered here without
preconcert or preparation, I have the pleasure of presenting
you their hearty greeting. In feeling and in sympathy they
represent many thousands of American patriotic citizens, who
deprecate the tyranny which exiled one of the chief citizens of
our country, guilty of no offence, and in violation of the Con
stitution and the law. ... I doubt not, Sir, but that the
record of your patriotic efforts in support of free government,
will constitute a brilliant page in American history. Posterity
will revere your name, and will be emboldened by your ex
ample. Esteemed and honored at home, your fellow-citizens
designated you to represent them in the Congress of the nation,
and well they know and appreciate how faithfully and ably you
discharged the high trust committed to you. ... But how
priceless is this exile since it has caused the usurpers of power
to pause in their mad career, and has nerved the arm and
aroused the vigilance of freemen to defend the great corner
stone of free institutions — free speech and a free press ! "

Mr. "Vallandigham replied, thanking his fellow-citizens for
their kindly welcome. He said it was gratifying personally,
but much more as a testimony for the great cause of constitu
tional liberty. Very strange was the spectacle of an American
citizen in exile, receiving a visit from his own countrymen
upon foreign soil, and under the protection of a foreign flag,
but in sight of his own country. " It is indeed," said Mr. V.,

328 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" my country, and as dear to me as when last I trod its soil.7'
It was not fitting that here he should discuss the political
questions of that country. The great issue in this country and
at home was, indeed, the question of personal and political
liberty, secured in the one by Magna Charta, the Petition of
Right, the statute of Habeas Corpus, and the Bill of Rights ;•
and in the other by the guarantees of our State and Federal
Constitutions. In better times he would discuss them at home,
with the ancient freedom of an American citizen. Of himself,
though so cordially met and kindly referred to, he had noth
ing to say. He was nothing ; the cause everything. A great
struggle was going on in the United States to regain lost lib
erties — freedom of speech, of the press, and of public as
semblages, and to maintain free elections. He had great faith
in the triumph of the people, faith in Providence, and faith in
the race which, in England and America, had successfully sup
ported their rights and liberties for six hundred years. The
race would still vindicate itself in the United States. The
right of free election, and all that preceded and was essential
to it, must be maintained — peaceably if possible, but it must
be maintained at all hazards. He counselled obedience to the
Constitution and to all laws, and the enforcing of that obe
dience by all men, those in authority and those not in authority.
The ballot was the true and proper remedy in the United
States for all political wrongs, and it was all-sufficient. But
when the ballot is denied, then the right of revolution begins
— not the right only, but the sacred duty. Give us a free
ballot and we want no more. Through this we will regain
liberty, maintain the Constitution, uphold the laws, and restore
the Union ; and thus we will support the Government which our

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 329

fathers made. Claiming the fullest right at home to criticise
and condemn the men and acts of the Administration, and
meaning at the proper time to again exercise it to the utmost,
he, yet on foreign soil, had no word of bitterness to speak.
He would only remember now that they represented his
country, and forbear.

The canvass in Ohio, as has been already stated, was con
ducted with extraordinary spirit. Large and enthusiastic Dem
ocratic meetings were held in every part of the State, and
were addressed by able and eloquent speakers. Mr. Vallan-
digham earnestly desired to mingle in the conflict, but his
friends, fearful of the consequences, would not consent ; yet so
anxious was he to take part in the canvass, that on one occa
sion, without their consent, against their advice, he made an
attempt to return (an account of which will be given in the
next chapter), but was unsuccessful. He, however, sent able
and spirited letters to several different meetings, which were
published and widely circulated. At a Eepublican meeting in
Columbus, Mr. Brough, his competitor for the office of Gov
ernor, had declared that the election of Mr. Vallandigham
would be an " invitation to the rebels " to come and take pos
session of the soil, and that it would "inaugurate civil war in
Ohio.'7

In a letter dated Windsor, C. W., Sept, 15, 1863, to a
mass meeting of the Democracy convened in Dayton on the
17th of September, he thus replies : —

"First, The 'invitation to rebels in arms' which my
election will signify, will be to lay down their arms and
return to the old Union and to obedience to and protection
under the Constitution, laws and flag, secure from Abolition
intermeddling and agitation as before the war, and from con-

330 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

scription, confiscation, execution, emancipation, negro equality,
and all exertions of arbitrary, despotic power since.

" Second. There will be no ' civil war ' in Ohio if I am
elected Governor, unless Mr. Brough and his party inaugurate
it ; in which event we will ' crush out the rebellion ' in a very
much shorter space of time than they have employed in putting
down the f slaveholders' rebellion/ If, however, he means that
they will ' secede ' from the State by voluntary exile to Canada
or elsewhere, there will be no ' coercion '• in that event. But
the threat, if intended to intimidate, is as idle as the wind : if
meant seriously, it is time that the people should know it, that
they may affix the mark of Cain upon the foreheads of these
new conspirators against the ballot-box. In any event, he
whom a majority of the ' qualified electors' of Ohio may
choose for their Governor will be inaugurated, and the vast
mass of the people without distinction of party will aid, if
need be, in the work of keeping the peace of the State and
carrying out the fundamental maxim of popular governments
that the ' majority must govern.' For let Mr. Brough and all
others who would defeat the will of the people take notice, that
{ there is a mighty mass of men in Ohio whose nerves are
strung up like steel/ who mean that the man who is the choice
of the people shall be the people's Governor. Should that
choice fall upon me, all the duties of the office shall be faith
fully and fearlessly discharged. I would myself obey the
Constitution and laws, and see to it that all others obeyed them
within her limits and jurisdiction. The courts should be open
and restored once more to their rightful authority; justice
administered without denial or delay, and the military in strict
subordination to the civil power. Habeas corpus should be
respected, no citizen arrested except upon due process of law,
or held except for trial by the civil tribunals, and t none kid
napped from the State.

" But while the rights of the State and the liberties of her
citizens should be thus strictly enforced, the constitutional and
lawful authority and rights of the Federal Government should
be obeyed and respected with scrupulous fidelity, no matter
who administered it. Whatever the Administration have a
right under the Constitution and laws to demand or expect
from the State Executive, should be promptly and exactly
rendered. In short, I would adopt and thoroughly carry out

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 331

the two maxims upon this subject laid down by Mr. Jefferson
in his inaugural in 1801 : —

" First. ' The support of the State Governments in all their
rights as the most competent administrators of our domestic
concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican ten
dencies/

" Second. ' The preservation of the General Government
in its whole constitutional vigor as the sheet-anchor of our
peace at home and safety abroad/ "

In a letter to a similar meeting a few days after, he says : —

" I counsel you, one and all, to stand by the Union, main
tain the Constitution, support the Government, and obey the
laws. But in the name and by the memory of your fathers,
and as you would secure the blessings of liberty to yourselves
and your children, I invoke you to defend the right of election
and the ballot-box by all the means which the exigencies of
the case may demand. The hour of your trial has at last
come. Be firm and be ready. And God grant that the spirit
of the patriots and freemen of other ages and countries, of the
heroes of Greece and Rome, the spirit of Bruce and Tell, of
Hampden and Sydney, of Henry, and Washington and Jackson,
may be found to survive yet in the men of the present genera
tion in America ; and thus that both the form and the substance
of constitutional liberty and free popular government be still
preserved and made secure among us."

About the same time a meeting was held in New Lisbon.
The following incident in connection with that meeting, we
take from the Wellsville Patriot : —

" VALLANDIGHAM'S BIRTH-PLACE.

" As the Democratic procession in New Lisbon on Thursday
last passed the residence of Mrs. Vallandigham, a comfortable
two-story brick, surrounded with shade trees and tastefully
arranged shrubbery, we observed suspended across the gateway
a plain white muslin banner, bearing the simple inscription
which stands at the head of this paragraph, and upon the
grassy lawn, near the door of the old homestead, now rendered

332 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

dear to every freeman, stood the aged mother of Hon. C. L.
Vallandigham, whose name and fame is familiar to the civilised
world as the great apostle and champion of human rights
during the reign of terror and high-handed usurpations of the
Lincoln Administration. To Mrs. V., who is now more than
( three-score years and ten/ the 17th day of September, 1863,
was a proud day. What must have been her feelings when
she witnessed that every one, perhaps, of that great procession
of freemen, as they passed that plain, unassuming banner, in
voluntarily sent forth their hearty huzzas in honor of her
exiled and persecuted son ! and that procession, long and
enthusiastic as it was, was but a moiety of the honest sons of
Ohio whose inmost hearts beat in unison with theirs. ' Vallan-
digham's Birth Place/ What associations crowd around it! —
the once residence of an aged divine who has long since been
gathered to his fathers, and now the residence of his widow, who,
like the mother of Washington, imparted the nobleness of her
own soul to her son. By her instructions in morals, in religion,
in purity of purpose and honesty of intentions, from convic
tions of duty, she raised her son Clement; but .little did she
think when bestowing but a mother's care upon him, that
before he had scarcely reached the meridian of life, that through
official persecution and banishment from his native State and
the home of his adoption, he would become the admired and
beloved of millions. But such are the mysterious providences
of God. Just in time for the Colonies to throw off the yoke
of Great Britain, He gave an oppressed and tax-ridden people
a leader who conducted them through a successful struggle of
seven years for freedom, for liberty and independence ; and it
may be that He has sent us a second deliverer in the person of
C. L. Vallandigham, from all those terrible wrongs and out
rages which the people are now suffering at the hands of usur
pation and arrogance. * Vallandigham's Birth Place ' is now
consecrated and classical ground ; and whether the terrible
struggle through which this country is passing shall result in
the triumph of freedom or despotism, the present century will
not have passed into eternity until pilgrimages will be made
from every point of the compass where the fire of liberty is
unquenched, and sages and patriots will revere the spot and
love to look upon it as every freeman does the hallowed grounds
of Mt. Vernon and Monticello, the Hermitage, or Ashland.7'

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 333

The enthusiasm for Mr. Vallandigham, as exhibited in the
tremendous outpourings of the people in every part of the State,
greatly alarmed the Administration. But they determined that
he should not be elected if force or fraud could prevent it. It
was the design of the President at one time to attempt to con
trol the election by force, as in Kentucky, and the suspension
of the writ of habeas corpus in every State was the first step
in that direction. But the firm front shown by the Democratic
party, and their fixed purpose to resist by arms, if necessary,
compelled him to change the scheme from fbrce to fraud, and
through the joint aid of secret "Union Leagues" and the War
Department his success was complete. For although Mr.
Vallandigham received a larger vote by many thousands than
had ever before been given to a Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor of Ohio, yet the vote of the State was recorded against
him by a very large majority. The friends of the Administra
tion had repeatedly declared that they could better sustain the
loss of a battle, or even of a whole campaign in the field, than
to lose the political control of Ohio by his election, and they
acted accordingly. Such stupendous frauds as they perpetrated
had never been committed in any political canvass in the
United States. Hundreds of soldiers that would have cast
their ballots for Mr. Vallandigham were in one way or another
prevented. Thousands of men who were not citizens of Ohio
were allowed to vote against him; and whole companies of
soldiers from other States boasted not only that they had voted
in Ohio, but that at several different polls they had helped to
swell the majority in favor of his competitor. The increase of
the Democratic vote over that of 1862* was 1132; the increase

* The vote for Secretary of State, there being no election for Governor

in 1862.

334 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of the Republican vote over that of 1862 was 68,461 ! this being
the home vote, not including the army vote, which would make
the disparity of increase still greater, and furnish still clearer
evidence of enormous frauds.

Under these circumstances Mr. Vallandigham's election was
impossible. Nor is it believed that the election of any other
Democrat would have been permitted. Mr. Vallandigham's
peace principles may have deprived him of some votes, but not
many. He was cordially supported by General George "W.
Morgan and other gallant officers in the army, though they
did not endorse his views in regard to the war ; and Demo
cratic soldiers in general voted for him wherever the free exer
cise of the ballot was allowed them. In the 57th regiment,
one of the most gallant regiments in the army, he received a
majority of the votes cast, and in the State he received a larger
vote by between twenty-five and thirty thousand than was given
to the Democratic candidate for Governor two years before, who
favored a vigorous prosecution of the war.

The result was immediately made known to Mr. Vallan-
digham, who the next day issued the following address to the
Democracy of Ohio : —

"Democrats of Ohio: — You have been beaten — by what
means it is idle now to inquire. It is enough that while tens
of thousands of soldiers were sent or kept within your State,
or held 'inactive in camp elsewhere, to vote against you, the
Confederate enemy were marching upon the capital of your
country.

" You were beaten ; but a nobler battle for constitutional
liberty and free popular government never was fought by any
people. And your unconquerable firmness and courage, even
in the midst of armed military force, secured you those first
of freemen's right — free speech and a free ballot. The con-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 335

spiracy of the fifth of May fell before you. Be >not discouraged ;
despair not of the Republic. Maintain your rights ; stand
firm to your position ; never yield up your principles or your
organization. Listen not to any who would have you lower
your standard in the hour of defeat. No mellowing of your
opinions upon any question, even of policy, will avail anything
to conciliate your political foes. They demand nothing less
than an absolute surrender of your principles and your organi
zation. Moreover, if there be any hope for the Constitution
or liberty, it is in the Democratic party alone; and your fellow-
citizens in a little while longer will see it. Time and events
will force it upon all, except those only who profit by the
calamities of their country.

" I thank you, one and all, for your sympathies and your
suffrages. Be assured that though still in exile for no offence
but my political opinions, and the free expression of them to
you in peaceable public assembly, you will find me ever stead
fast in those opinions, and true to the Constitution and the
State and country of my birth.

" C. L. YALLANDIGHAM.

" Windsor, C. TF., October 14."

On the same day he wrote a letter to his wife, from which
we make some extracts :-r-

" I am and shall remain as calm and unmoved as the un
ruffled waters of the river and th& serene bright sunshine of
this beautiful October morning. If you will be calm, my dear
wife, and bear this light affliction with firmness, I shall not for
myself suffer a moment's annoyance. For the present we can
sojourn here, and I have made a most agreeable arrangement
to occupy Mr. R.'s residence, all furnished, along with Col. S.
I have enough to support me for a year to come. As to the
future, posterity will vote for me, and there will be neither chance
nor motive for violence or fraud. But I am confident also that
after some time be passed I shall have justice and hold the power
both. No man ever more than I learned the lesson ' to labor
and to wait/ Two years ago few dared name me kindly : now
millions praise, I will not say revere me. And yet I am but
just entering upon the full vigor of mature manhood, and in
the course of nature and the providence of God have many

336 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

years yet before me. I mourn, indeed, over what I but too
plainly foresee to be the calamities near at hand for my country.
She is about to add one more to the many lessons of history
which teach us that no people ever recover liberty once sur
rendered, except in the baptism of blood. It seems to be a
divine law that without shedding of blood there is no remis
sion of the sin of political servitude. I am reminded of the
last sentence of my speech of January last, 14th. I fear it will
prove to have been prophetic. But I will not yield up hope
till the last extremity. It is indeed a melancholy spectacle to
see so many people eager to be made slaves, and all the rest
overborne by fraud and violence. But there never was a nobler
contest waged for liberty and the right than by the Democracy
of Ohio. All cannot be lost as long as such men, so many in
number and animated by such a spirit, survive. In one way
or another they will regain all. . . . And now, my dear wife,
be still of good cheer, be calm, be firm, and wait."

On the 14th of November a large body of the students of
the University of Michigan paid Mr. Vallandigham a formal
visit at Windsor. They were received by him in the dining-
room of the Hirons House, which was well filled by a select
audience, embracing many of the leading citizens of Windsor
and Detroit. A correspondent of the Hillsdale Democrat thus
describes the visit. After some preliminary remarks in regard
to the occasion, the writer says : —

" We marched up to the Hirons House, where we found a
room at our command, having been prepared for us by Mr.
Vallandigham. We were conducted to the room by the gen
tlemanly proprietor, and as soon as we had all 'become seated,
a side door opened, and the statesman, the martyr, and the
exiled patriot of the nineteenth century, stood before us ; exiled
for no other reason than that of loving his country too well to
stand idly by and not lift his hand or voice as he saw rights
which were in accordance with the spirit and the policy of the
Government — rights which were guaranteed not only by
the Constitution of the United States, but by the Constitutions

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 337

of each and every State — rights which were held as dear to the
people as their own lives, for without their rights, as the last two
years have clearly shown, the ' life, liberty and happiness ' of the
people were worthless — grossly violated. I confess I was some
what disappointed in the appearance of the man. I had expected
a tall, rather slim, and a very proud-looking man — perhaps I
may say fierce-looking, eccentric in manners and dress. But
on the contrary I saw a man neatly and fashionably dressed,
with smiling open countenance, and nothing about him very
forcible or striking save his eye. I think I have never in my
whole course of life seen an eye which was like it in every
particular, — very large, full and round. It is constantly be
traying the thoughts of his mind and the feelings of his heart.
It gleamed and sparkled as he enumerated his wrongs ; and
it trembled and filled with a tear as he pictured his country in
the future.

" A member of the class addressed him, telling him of our
sympathising with him in his wrongs as a fellow-citizen, and
of our appreciation of him as a fearless and conscientious
champion of constitutional rights. Mr. Vallandigham then
arose and essayed to speak, but could not ; his lip trembled
and a tear stood in his eye. He raised himself to his full
height, and looked around for a single moment. That moment
I never shall forget. There was not even a breath drawn —
all was still as death. Perhaps it was weakness in me; if so,
we were all weak, for there was not a dry eye in that large
crowd. We saw before us a soul, generous, noble, true; a
soul whose every throb was for his country ; a soul that com
muned with every one present, conveying ideas clothed in the
eloquence of a silence that drew tears even from reporters' eyes.
' Friends/ said he. The spell was broken — his voice was
again under his control ; and for a full half-hour we sat there,
never stirring, hardly breathing, listening with every faculty
alive to catch the eloquent words which conveyed thoughts
almost inspired. Perhaps it was the occasion, perhaps the
emotion of the speaker, that had such an effect upon all present.
I say, it might have been this that had such an influence over
us that we were far from criticism. But I cannot attribute
it wholly to this, but in part to a feeling of humbleness we all
have when in the presence of a superior mind.

" Long will the participants in that excursion remember it.

22

338 , LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Long will it be before they forget the mighty truths that a
mighty man impressed upon them, in the sincerity, earnestness
and eloquence of one who felt their worth/'

Mr. C. A. Buskirk, on behalf of the students, delivered a
most appropriate and eloquent address, to which Mr. Vallan-
digham made the following reply : —

" I thank you, young gentlemen, for this visit; I thank you,
BIT, especially, Mr. Buskirk, for the compliments so hand
somely expressed on behalf of your fellows. The applause of
the young is the highest praise — they speak the language of
the coming generation, and anticipate the judgment of poster
ity. To that judgment, if it so be that my name shall chance
to live in the record of these times, I long since appealed : and,
meantime, am willing to abide the scrutiny which must precede
it. Without further personal allusion, therefore, in reply,
allow me to pass to another subject, and if it be in my power,
thus to change a visit of ceremony into one perhaps not alto
gether without profit.

" You are students. Some of you still pursue your classical
and scientific studies ; others prepare yourselves for professional
pursuits ; all of you are eager to rush into the great world
and be men. Yet in a little while, when you have borne its
buffettings with lusty sinews, not one of you but will exclaim
with a sigh —

1 Ah, happy years ! I would I were a boy again.'

" But in the battle of life there is no retreat, and the brave
spirits among you will press forward, and the weak falter and
perish; and just in proportion as you are disciplined every
way, you will be ready to meet whatever fortune may betide
you. ' Redeem the time/ There is no injunction more sug
gestive. So many days and years you have in pawn to the
Almighty Maker of heaven and earth; and those only are
reckoned redeemed which are spent profitably either to the body
or the mind. Youth is not the season for ease and pleasure,
but for labor and self-denial. Whoever has practised these
hardy virtues when a boy and in early manhood, will, at forty,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 339

sound in mind and body, find the lawful and virtuous pleasures
of life full of sweetness. Horace was right : multa tulitfecitque
puer.

" The more ingenuous among you incur another, and widely
differing hazard. You have endured heat and cold ; have
refrained from lust and wine ; have abjured pleasure, or rather
have found it in labor and study. Your vigils have ' out-
watched the bear.' But youthful ambition is eager and impa
tient. It sees nothing but Fame's proud temple, and forgets
that it shines afar. It sees not the long and wearisome leagues
of hill and valley, of forest and rock, of thicket and jungle,
which lie between the goddess and her worshippers. It counts
every moment's delay and difficulty on the way as a moment
lost. There is, indeed, a false goddess whose fame is near and
easy of access. Hard by is the altar of Mammon. Fraud,
falsehood and violence are their joint sibyls and priests. A
tumultuous crowd of idolatrous and abject worshippers throng
around. But notoriety is not fame, and her devotees soon
perish. Not such let your ambition be, but rather that which
Pope, and after him Lord Mansfield, proclaimed, e the pursuit
of noble ends by noble means/ and yours, too, that popularity
which follows, not that which is run after. But to obtain this
you must learn early that most difficult of all lessons — to
labor and to wait. At twenty you think forty an old age. At
forty, if you have disciplined your minds and not abused your
bodies, you will find yourselves younger but far wiser than you
are to-day ; and the hour of your death will seem more distant
and give you less concern. You will feel that there is yet a „
life-time before you ; and if you are of a strong will and brave *
spirit, and worthy of a name to live, your past failures and
defeats you will regard then as but probation and discipline,
and indeed as so many assurances of final triumph. Press
on ! but not in haste. The master of Ravenswood chose
a wise motto and not inapt coat of arms — a bull's head, and
1 1 bide my time.' In one other thing be not mistaken. You
are not about to finish your studies. When you take leave of
the University you but begin them. No man ever attained
great and enduring eminence without study, not always of
books. Men of action have not leisure at all times for books.
But they are students, nevertheless, of the men and things
around them ; and books are but the written records of things

340 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and men remote, or of the past. But they have this advantage,
that whatever they record has passed through the alchemy of
the great minds by whom they were written. And, more
over, in them we study men and things, divested of the
prejudices, of the bigotries, and the self-interested influences
of that which is present in time or near in space. Especially
is this true of history — the most amplifying, liberalising in
its effect upon the mind and soul of all studies. He who
remains a bigot in anything has read history to little purpose.
And he who would comprehend the present and discern the
future, must give his days and nights to this study. Prophecy
uninspired is but history anticipated. Head history and learn
that the patriot, the hero, the statesman, the orator whom you
reverence or admire in the pages of Plutarch and Livy, or of
Hume, Gibbon and Macaulay, was reviled and persecuted in
his own day and suffered death, it may have been, at the hands
of the men of his own generation. Ponder, too, the wisdom
of Moses who before the pleasures and honors of the king's
court preferred rather the Red Sea and forty years in the
wilderness, and death and an unknown grave, that he might

become a great law-giver and a founder of a new religion and
f f -i -I

ot a powerful people.

" Most of you young gentlemen have read the usual course
of ' ancient classics/ It is the fashion of our times to decry
this study. But aside from the perennial pleasure through
life which he receives who seeks these precious fountains, their
practical value also will not be questioned by him who reflects
that our whole language, and especially our scientific nomen
clature, is derived largely from the Greek and Latin, and that
our entire literature is pervaded by the spirit of these classics,
and full of quotations and allusions drawn from them. Cicero's
magnificent eulogy upon the studies which Archias taught is
not at all exaggerated when applied to the Grecian and Roman
writings which have come down to us. If the modern sculptor
study the Apollo Belvedere and the Dying Gladiator, why shall
not the modern student learn the language of the men who
chiseled these wonderful creations out from the solid marble ?
But most valuable as the mere discipline may be, it is not
enough that you content yourselves with the usual course now
prescribed in the school or the college. These writings must
be a study more or less through life. Let not any one say

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 341

that he has ( no time.' There is always time and a way for
whatever a strong-willed, diligent man may choose to under
take. What is most wanted is a judicious economy of time,
and a wise division of it in the multiplicity of employments, so
that but one thing shall be done at a time. A majority of you,
young gentlemen, are preparing yourselves for professional
pursuits. "Whoever would become a Christian clergyman, let
him preach the evangely of Bethlehem. Let him confine him
self to his legitimate duties and aspire to be the most faithful
and exemplary of the men of his calling. Whoever would
practise surgery and medicine, let his ambition be to reach as
near as possible or to excel the acquirements and skill of the
great men who in ancient and modern times have been the
ornaments of that profession. The Novum Organum of medi
cine remains to be written, and he who has to write it has not
as yet appeared. Why should he not be an American ? Why
not adorn the University of Michigan? And you, young
gentlemen, who prepare for the profession of law, will have a
nobler theatre to act in than any who have gone before you in
the United States. Out of the terrible revolution which now
convulses every part of our unhappy land, will arise questions
of constitutional and statute law, of personal liberty, of private
right, of property, of life, grander, more numerous, more infi
nite in variety and more perplexing than heretofore in any age
or country. If just now 'amid arms laws are silent,7 in your
day, at least, should free government happily in any form
survive among us, arms will again yield to the toga and laws
reign supreme. With diligence, therefore, fixed faith and
unalterable purpose, prepare yourselves for the destiny which
lies before you, to the end that in the next generation you may
be among the number of those who upon the Bench and at the Bar
shall restore and bear aloft to higher renown the already illus
trious standard of British and American forensic learning and
eloquence. Cowardice and servility before Executive power
were the disgrace of the English bar and bench in the days of
tho Stuarts, and these, threatening now the honor and the
independence of the American judiciary, are among the most
alarming portents of the times. But remember that while
along with the great Hampden the name of the honest and
fearless Coke and of his noble wife still survive in honor, the
time-serving and unjust judges who sat with him and yielded

342 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to political expedience and ( military necessity/ have perished
from history or are remembered only to be execrated. The
blessed memory of Lord Hale is still fragrant; while the name
of the bloody Jeffries, who escaped death upon the felon's
scaffold only by dying miserably in a felon's cell, is the oppro
brium of the English bench. Algernon Sydney died as a
convicted traitor; but in a little while his execution was
adjudged judicial murder, and posterity for six generations
has held him in reverence as a patriot. Finch, King James
the Second's Attorney-General, procured the conviction and
death of the pure and virtuous Lord Russell as a conspirator
against the Government; but eight years afterwards, when he
would have relieved himself in Parliament from the odium of
the act, the indignant clamor of the whole House forced him in
shame and confusion to resume his seat, and Russell still lives in
England and America as a martyr to liberty. Your courage,
your fortitude, your manhood will also some day be severely
tried. But then remember Curran, whose fame brightens just
as the memory of the venal placemen and barristers around
him rots with each revolving year, and who when menaced in
court by a file of soldiers, clattering their muskets as he ad
dressed the jury in defence of one charged with treason, ex
claimed in manly defiance; 'You may assassinate, but you
cannot intimidate me.J Read, too, the speeches and admire
and imitate the heroic Erskine, the greatest of the English
barristers, who against the whole power of the Executive in
time of both foreign war and rebellion, maintained for years
the rights and liberties of Englishmen with undaunted intrep
idity. Prepare yourselves by continual study of the characters '
and noble emulation of the examples of these and other great
and good men of the past for like scenes in your own day.
Nerve your hearts now for the struggle. But remember that
ability, however eminent, and intellectual discipline, however
exact, are not enough. Without pure morals, correct habits
and fixed integrity, you cannot endure the trial. Be virtuous,
be pious ; I use the word in no narrow, sectarian or theological
sense, but in that which Virgil means when he calls .^Eneas
' pious/ a piety which belongs to no one sect, nor time, nor
clime, nor country, but which everywhere and at all times
renders to God, and self, and man, whatever is due, and does
it in the very spirit of the Sermon on the Mount.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 343

"But, young gentlemen, while I have thus addressed you
as students, preparing yourselves for the ordinary business and
professions of life, I well know that at any time many of you
would be, and in times of such tremendous import as are just
now upon us in our own country, all of you are profoundly
interested in politics. Probably you give to them more of
your thoughts than to any of your collegiate or professional
studies. I know, too, that many of you even now look eagerly
forward to the time when you will pass from your professions
into political life. That is the goal of your ambitious longings.
Your hearts are fixed upon it. It is an honorable, a holy
ambition ; an ambition not to be extinguished, but to be regu
lated. He is a false teacher who would tell the ingenuous, vir
tuous and public-spirited youth of the country that the political
service of that country is fit only for the vulgar, the impure,
the corrupt. As there are hypocrites in the pulpit, empirics
in medicine, pettifoggers at the bar, and pretenders everywhere,
so there are demagogues in political life. But there .is as well
a morality, a philosophy, a science in politics far above the
circle of these reptiles. Unhappily the low standard of capacity
and morals set up and denounced by those who decline public
life, and practically but too often acknowledged by politicians,
is another of the evil portents which threaten our country. Of
the corrupting influences of avarice at all times I need not
speak. But more debasing and dangerous still, in seasons of
great public commotion, is the execrable vice of fear. All these
combined make up that most loathsome of all the objects of
reproach and scorn, a ( scurvy politician/ He has borne the
same odious character in every country and age. Among the
Greeks he once courted popularity or place by pointing out the
smugglers of figs, and was cursed as both spy and informer,
and thence gave a name to the whole class of demagogues. In
Home he headed every petty popular tumult, and clamored
fiercely for a division of lands and goods. Curran described
him in his day in felicitous phrase as ' one who, buoyant by
putrefaction, rises as he rots/ He is the vermin, the insect of
politics, and amid the heats of civil war and convulsion, turns
into life thick as gnats in the summer evening air. If any among
you — and I speak to those who would aspire to be leaders
among their countrymen — have neither the capacity nor the
ambition to be statesmen, let him at least not stoop to become

344 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

a demagogue. Preach, heal, try causes, work, but scorn to be
one of that number who know nothing of politics except the
passions and personalities which they excite. If not able to
argue upon principles, measures, policies, debate not at all. If
you cannot soar, do not creep. Whoever discusses only men in
politics is always largely a slanderer.

" Principles, not men, is not indeed altogether a sound maxim,
though little, liable to be abused, since personalities always make
up so large and controlling an element in mere partisan politics.
Better say, principles and men. It is easy to be a politician or
demagogue — sail with the wind, float with the current, look
not to the compass, neither lift up eyes to the heavens where
the constellations and the pole star, bright, glorious emblems
of God, and truth, and the right, still shine steadfast, im
movable, just as they shone in the beginning of time. Poeta
nascitur. So it is with the demagogue. But the statesman
must be made as well as born. His voyage is through mid-
ocean and in storm. He sails under orders. His port is ascer
tained and prescribed before he sets out, and it is his duty to
reach it; and so, like the majestic ocean steamer, he sails on, and

' Against the wind, against the tide,
Still steadies with an upright keel.'

" Demosthenes, more than two thousand years ago, in his
great oration for the crown, well distinguished between these two
characters, declaring that while they were alike in nothing,
they differed chiefly in this : that the statesman boldly and
honestly proclaimed his opinions before the event, and thus
made himself responsible to fortune, to the times, to his coun
trymen, to the world ; while the sycophant or demagogue was
silent till the event had happened, and then governed his speech
and his conduct accordingly. And now allow me to add, that
though you may be patriots and yet not statesmen, the great
statesman is always a patriot. His love of country is as well
a principle as an emotion. Duty enters largely into it, hence
it is stable, enduring. It is not sensational, certainly not a
mere feeling of gratitude ; least of all in the meaning of that
word, as defined by Dr. Johnson, ' a lively sense of favors yet
to be received/ He loves his country both wisely and well.
He never sacrifices her real though remote interest to a popular
clamor, and still less at the demand of those who hold the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 345

power. Neither will he corrupt the virtue nor tarnish the
honor of his country to serve her mere sordid interests. Rather
will he imitate the example of Aristides, who, reporting to the
Athenians that a certain proposition was indeed for their im
mediate advantage but would bring dishonor upon the State,
counselled that they would reject it.

" I have said nothing about ' loyalty/ It is a word which
belongs justly but only to kingly governments. I can com
prehend loyalty to a king, and especially to a queen, but as an
American I choose to adhere to the good and honest old repub
lican word ' patriotism/ and to cherish the virtue which it has
always been used to express. Aspire, then, young gentlemen, you
who would pursue a public course, to be patriot statesmen.
Have faith — absolute, unquestioning, immovable — that faith
which speaks to itself in the silence and calm of the heart's
own beating, saying, if not to-day or this time, then to-morrow,
or next? or some other day, at some other time, in some other way,
all will be well. Without this no man ever achieved greatness.
Be incorruptible in your integrity, be inexorable in your delib
erate, well-considered purposes, be appalled by no difficulties.
Amplify your minds, but still more, be great in soul. It is this
which shall lift you up high above the earth, and assimilate
you to that which is divine. Without it, you will but creep
with dusty and drooping and wearied wing. Without it, think
not to endure that cruel and crushing weight of doing and
suffering which he must bear who faithfully and with heroism,
at any time, but most of all in periods of great public convul
sion, would act the part of the patriot statesman.77

At Niagara Falls, as we have already intimated, Mr. "Val-
landigham was daily overwhelmed with visitors from every
State, and the throng was but little diminished at Windsor.
Spies, too, beset him at every step, but to no purpose. The
Administration seemed to be afraid of him. The United
States gunboat Michigan, with loaded cannon and steam up,
lay opposite his bedroom window for four weeks, while a
score of detectives, provided with his photograph, kept Avatch
in every public place.

346 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDI0HAl£

The political canvass being over, Mr. Yallandigham devoted
much of his time to reading and study. In a letter to a friend,
written in November, he thus describes his daily way of life : —

" I am here as calm, as determined, as steadfast, and as hope
ful as ever, and as busy too. I am reviewing history and
political philosophy ; dipping a little into the ancient classics
again ; making notes and memoranda of the times ; writing
letters ; and closely, day by day, watching the course of
events at home and abroad; ready for any fortune, and I hope
equal to it. I see many visitors also, and spend not an idle
moment, for my recreations, riding, walking, fishing, hunting,
&c., I do not count idleness."

In a letter to his brother James, dated January 16th, 1864,
he says : —

" I thank you for the faith you express in my future. To
the testimony of my own conscience and the judgment of other
ages, and of the present generation l after some time be past/
I long since delivered myself; and I calmly dwell now in the
present, awaiting the times which are to come. . . . Mean
time, while in exile or at home, till the time for action shall
come, I will with faith and patience devote myself to those
studies and pursuits which shall fit me for whatever Providence
may have yet designed for me. Here I accommodate myself
to circumstances and make myself as comfortable as possible.
I have some excellent friends here and in Detroit, and what
time I am not occupied with them and in exercise, I devote to
my books — some of the best of which I have had sent from
my own library to me here. Indeed, scarce ever in my life
have I had so fine a chance for study, and I am improving it
to the utmost. I hear from home by letter every few days,
and from all parts of the country by newspaper every day. . . .
Money I have now all that I shall need for some time. So
( the Lord's my shepherd : I do not want/ and literally he is
e furnishing my table in the presence of my foes.' '

In this spirit, and engaged in these pursuits, Mr. Vallan-
digham in exile passed the winter and spring of 1864, await-
g a favorable opportunity, which he felt persuaded would
to return to his beloved country and his cherished home.

CHAPTER XIV.

RETURN FROM BANISHMENT.

ON the morning of the 5th day of May, 1863, Mr. Val
landigham was violently torn from his home, and after an il
legal and unjust trial was sent into banishment : on the even
ing of the 15th day of June, 1864, he returned — of his own
accord returned, and was once more sheltered beneath his own
roof, in the bosom of his own family.

The circumstances attending his return were highly inter
esting and exciting : before narrating them, however, we will
give an account of an attempt he made to return some eight
or nine months before ; and for this account we are indebted
to Dr. J. A. Walters, of Dayton. In a letter^ dated October
7th, 1871, he says :—

" Yours was duly received, in which you wish to know (in
consequence of my long intimate and confidential relations
with the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham) if I have not some secret
or private political history of him that would be of interest to
the public, and that might now be properly made known ; and
if so, whether I would not furnish it to you for publication.
Mr. Vallandigham, as his most confidential friends all know,
had very little private or secret history as regards himself.
He always appeared to move from fixed principles, and these
principles were the same in private as in public. However,
in looking over my papers I find several things that may be
of public interest known only to myself. Inclosed you will
find some papers from him that vou are at liberty to use. if

348 LIFE OF CLEMENT -L. VALLANDIGHAM.

you think them of sufficient public interest. But with a view
to a proper understanding of the circumstances which gave rise
to these papers, it will be necessary for me to give a short ex
planation.

"All history gives account of premonitions, unseen influ
ences which actuate men for good or for evil. The Bible
speaks of guardian angels that watch over us, and of course
impress us for our own good or for the good of others.
Scarcely any of us but do acts for which we are unable at the
time to give a reason, but which in due course of events is
made to appear plain. This apparent digression will explain
itself as we progress.

" Mr. Vallandigham arrived in Windsor, Canada, opposite
Detroit, about the 24th day of August, 1863, and took rooms
at the Hirons House. In the fore-part of September following,
I, in company with a friend, spent several days with him at
his new quarters. In a few weeks after my return home, I
began to feel an almost irresistible desire to visit him again;
yet I knew of no reason why I should. I had nothing new to
communicate to him, neither could I conceive that he had any
thing of interest to communicate to me. I would reason myself
into the belief that -it was worse than folly for me to visit him
under the circumstances, having been there only a few weeks
before. I tried to banish the idea from my mind, but it would
not down at my bidding ; and the promptings to go appeared
to strengthen with my desire to get rid of them. Yielding to
these strong and apparently irresistible influences, I again
visited him on the 29th of September. I got there in the
night, and found him in his room with a Mr. P. of Detroit,
to whom he introduced me, and said, ( Mr. P., this is a confi
dential friend of mine, with him everything is safe ; we will
commninicate to him our entire business, and hear what he thinks
of it/ He then stated that he had just completed an arrange
ment with Mr. P. by which he would be iii Toledo on the night
of October 1st ; that on that day he was going sixteen miles
below Detroit, on the Detroit river, Canada side; and that
Mr. P. was to station horses for him every ten miles, on the
opposite side of the river, to Toledo; that he would cross
the river in the night, and go through to Toledo in time
for the train to Lima the same night. Said he, ' Yoorhees,
Merrick, and others, speak in Toledo on the evening of that day,
and they speak in Lima on the next day, and I intend to

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 349

speak at that meeting with them, and from thence continue to
stump the State until the election. I have,' continued he,
'just as good a right to stump the State as Brough, and am de
termined to do it. Now/ said he, ' we will hear what you have
to say to this determined purpose of mine to vindicate, as I
claim, a sacred and constitutional right which no citizen
should ever yield but with his life/ I have no recollection
of ever feeling in all my life such an irresistible determina
tion to prevent any act or occurrence as I did to prevent
him from the execution of these plans, as I firmly believed
their execution could result in nothing but disaster to himself,
if not to the peace and quiet of the State. I replied immedi
ately, and with as much force as I could command, that so sure
as he did cross into Ohio he was a dead man ; that the wild
and almost demoniacal influence which always takes possession
of a portion of the people in time of war had, by the action
of the Administration press, been all turned against him; that
under this influence I believed thousands stood ready to take
his life, and would do it with a conscientious belief that they
were doing God and their country service. Mr. P. left and we
continued the subject until twelve o'clock that night, and 'more
or less all the next day. I used every argument and resorted
to every device that I thought would in any way bear upon
the case, but all to no effect. The arrangements were all
made, and go he would, to vindicate a right which he claimed
was nearer and dearer to him than life itself. That evening I
bade him good-bye, and went down to the river with a view of
crossing for home, but did not feel satisfied ; and while wait
ing for the Canada train to come* in, I resolved to return and
spend another night with him, and see if I could not make
some impression on him that might turn the scale in his attempt
to cross. I did so, and argued the case all over again, but
with no better success. The next morning when I took leave
of him, I remarked with much feeling and great earnestness
that I hoped to God a storm would come up that evening by
which he would be prevented from crossing the river. He
replied that he believed very much in special providences, and
that if an occurrence of that kind should take place he scarcely
knew what his action might be. This was the first evidence
he exhibited that anything could swerve him from his purpose,
and showed that while he was apparently unyielding to all

350 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

human influences, he was ready to yield to what might be a
providential manifestation. Before I left he handed me a
written address to the people of Ohio (which you will find
enclosed), and requested me so soon as I heard by telegraph or
otherwise of his crossing into Ohio, to hand it to his nephew,
James L. Robertson, and have him publish it in the Dayton
Empire, and send copies to the leading papers throughout the
State.

"About ten o'clock that day it commenced storming and rain
ing, and continued throughout the entire day and into the night.
He went down in the afternoon of that day through the storm
to the intended place of crossing. The river at this point is
about a mile and a quarter wide, and having no other way of
crossing but a small skiff, with the waves running high, and in
the night, the crossing would be' in the highest degree hazard
ous ; and no doubt it appeared to him in connexion with what
I had said, a providential interposition to save his life for some
future usefulness^ to _ his, country, and he did not make the
attempt.

" The next morning I received the following despatch from
Mr.? P. :—

" < DETROIT, October 2, '63.
'"Mr. J. A! Walters:

" ' The cider can't be sent.

P.'

"The next day I received the following* letter from Mr.
Vallandigham : —

" ' (Private.) WINDSOR, CAN., Oct. 2, '63.

" ' My Dear Doctor : —

" ' The storm was a more successful logician and counsellor
than you ; so here I am awaiting results. But, mind now, I
depend on you, and all of you, to make extra exertions to bring
Dayton and Montgomery County up to the highest mark. I
have written Pugh to be positively at D. on the 10th. Now,
Doctor, go to work, and telegraph me good news on the 13th.
"< Truly, C. L. VALL.'"

Mr. Vallandigham was a firm believer in Providence, and
judging from this providentialjiindrance that the time for him

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 351

had not yet come, he resolved to patiently wait a little longer.
Besides this, he knew that his friends had determined to bring
his case before the Supreme Court of the United States in the
winter, and though he was not sanguine as to the result, he
considered it his duty to do nothing further till that result
should be known. He had confidence in the Court, but his
case was of so extraordinary a character that he supposed it
most probable that no provision for its legal redress had ever
been made, the early framers of our Constitutions and laws not
foreseeing or deeming it possible that such a wrong as that to
which he had been subjected would ever occur under our free
institutions. He was right in his conjecture, for such substan
tially was the decision of the Court.

He now determined himself to redress the wrong that had
been inflicted upon him, to recover the liberties of which he
had been deprived, the rights which had been illegally and
violently taken from him, or perish in the attempt ; and only
awaited a favorable time. That time at length came, and the
stratagem to which he resorted to accomplish his perilous pur
pose we will now briefly detail.

On the night of the 14th of June, 1864, he was in his room
at the Hirons House. He was alone, and actively engaged in
packing a satchel, as if in preparation for travel. His face was
thoughtful, and the lines of resolution about his mouth seemed
deepened. As he stood before the mirror a little later, gravely
looking in as one in deep thought, he appeared of firmly knit
but not heavy figure, in fact with no superfluous flesh — his
stature about five feet and ten inches, his complexion fresh and
blooming, clear bright blue eyes, over-arched by not very heavy
brows, a Eoman nose, a rather closely trimmed dark beard, and

352 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

no moustache. A few moments after he stands before the same
mirror/ but there is a change. He is now a man of heavy, cor
pulent appearance; in height apparently under the medium
standard ; eye-brows heavy and dark, casting so deep a shadow
upon the eyes gleaming out from beneath them as almost, it
seemed, to darken them. A thick moustache swept the upper
lip, totally changing the expression of the mouth, and a long
flowing beard fell in a huge mass upon his bosom, converting
him, " like Esau of old, into a hairy man." A large pillow
taken from the bed had given the " Falstaffian proportions "
to Mr. Vallandigham's naturally lithe and graceful figure, and
for the luxuriant beard, moustache, and darkened eye-brows,
art had lent her aid. The pillow beneath the waist-coat, how
ever, was the wearer's own invention, and most efficient did it
prove in rendering his incognito complete. And now a long
folded leaf is turned, and the world at last knows the history
of Mr. Vallandigham's disguise when he made the famous
trip from Canada to Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio.

Just as the train came in which connected with trains going
southward on the American side of the Detroit river, the fat
man emerged from the shadows in the rear of the lower part
of the hotel, and through the back-yard reached the street, and
soon joined the passengers crowding towards the boat which
connected Her Majesty's dominions with the United States.
Mr. Vallandigham comfortably esconced himself on the vessel.
No one knew him ; and here it is proper to say that no one in
Hamilton, Ohio, nor anywhere else in all the world, did know
that he was to be in Hamilton upon the 15th day of June,
1864. He had counselled with no one, and he had told 110 one
of his intentions nor of his plans, and his arrival in that city
was as unexpected to his friends as it was to his enemies.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 353

When the American side was reached he calmly prepared
to leave the boat, and with the rest of the passengers was pass
ing through the necessary formalities with the United States
officers upon reaching the shore, when one of the officers came
up and said: "See here, old fellow, that won't do, you have got
contraband there," as he punched him with his fingers in the
rotund abdomen. Mr. Vallandigham was a man of nerve, but for
a moment he was taken aback. Before he could reply, the officer,
for same reason convinced that he was wrong, said : " Pardon
me, I see I am mistaken; but I have to watch for tricks."
Mr. Vallandigham simply bowed and passed on ; the pillow had
served well its purpose, it had answered an inquiry as if it had
been flesh and blood. Into the" streets of Detroit then he went,
and he had not been there more than ten minutes before he was
arrested for the violation of a petty municipal regulation. The
officer who arrested him said : " Come here to the light ; let
me look at you." They both stood together under the gas
light, and both eyed each other sharply and intently ; at last
the policeman said : " "Well, you look like an honest man and
a gentleman." With much earnestness and strong .emphasis,
looking his captor steadfastly in the eyes, Mr. Vallandigham
replied : " Sir, 1 am an honest man and a gentleman." The
policeman, after a moment's hesitation, said : " Then it's all
right, you can go." With light heart, bidding a cheerful good
night, Mr. Yallandigham wended his way to the depot.
Necessarily there he had to speak a few words. The first time
he spoke he noticed a man turn quickly and look at him ; he
returned the glance, saw it was a colored man, and then turned
away. When he got upon the train the same man came up
to him and whispered in his ear : " I know your voice, but you
23

354 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

are safe from me." Many years before Mr. Vallandigham
had performed a favor for this man, had done him a kindness
which had never been forgotten ; and so on that night, by the
gratitude of an humble negro, the great leader of the Demo
cratic party was preserved from arrest. In a short time he
was snugly wrapped up in a berth of the sleeping-car, and
swiftly flying through the darkness toward his beloved home
in Dayton. But there he did not stop ; steadfast in his deter
mination to be present at the Convention, he stilled the yearn
ings of his heart, overcame the earnest desire to stop and see
his loved ones at home, and did not leave the sleeping-car
until on the morning of the 15th the city of Hamilton was
reached.

John A. McMahon, Esq., in a letter dated "Dayton, Oct. 6,
1871," gives an account of his arrival and reception : —

" Our district was met in convention at Hamilton to select
a delegate to the Chicago Convention. Mr. Vallandigham
desired to be nominated, as we thought, for the purpose of
having an excuse to return. There w^as some vigorous opposi
tion to his selection as a delegate by a few of the more timidly
inclined. While the Montgomery County delegation were dis
cussing the matter in caucus, a messenger came in and handed
me a note pretty much after this style :

"' To J. A. McMahon or William H. Gillespie:—

" ' I am in town, and will speak at the Court House at 2.
Get out handbills.

"<C. L. VALLAXDIGHAM.'

"This ended all strife, producing wonderful commotion.
For a few moments all were quiet, but after the news spread
the wildest enthusiasm began to prevail. The handbills were
struck, couriers went to the country in every direction, and by
2 o'clock or a little later a large and uproarious, and I may say
determined crowd, had assembled. Mr. Vallandigham spoke

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 355

with extraordinary vigor, and the people responded with sym
pathetic ardor.

" After the meeting was over, the question was presented as
to his journey home. Some friends had arranged for his con
veyance by carriage. But some of us insisted that his conduct
should now be all open and above-board. He was in Ohio,
and should take the train like any other citizen. This was his
own preference. It was arranged that a friend should signal
from below Hamilton if soldiers were on the train. The
expectation was that a regiment would be sent by the officer in
command at Cincinnati; but it did not come. Mr. Vallan-
digham and his friends took possession of one car, and came
home in fine style and spirits. The news having spread, car
riages were at the depot to receive them, and they drove up
Main street to his home. The throng that crowded First street
from that time until a late hour in the night was immense.

" The question was discussed at Dayton and Columbus as to
the policy of an arrest, but the temper of the people was too
dangerous to be trifled with. Wiser counsels prevailed. It is
said — and I believe upon good authority — that when Mr.
Lincoln was considering the question of his return, he asked
an Ohio Senator what he thought of a re-seizure of Mr. Val-
landigham. The Senator asked Mr. Lincoln if he was ready
to transfer the Army of Virginia to Ohio ; if not, the attempt
had better not be made.

" I am sure that an attempt to re-arrest Mr. V. would have
led to general and violent resistance, the consequences of which
the wisest could not now imagine.

" No one, not a living soul that I have ever met, knew of
Mr. V.'s contemplated return. He dropped into Hamilton as
from the skies."

Another writer gives the following account : — •

"The Convention was organised at 1 o'clock, in the midst
of great excitement. A rumor began to be whispered around
that Vallandigham was on his way there, and would speak in
the afternoon. This was thought by all to be a canard, and even
the most credulous treated it as such ; still it excited the minds
of the people, and they began to crowd around the court-room
At half-past one a messenger brought a despatch saying that

356 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Vallandigham would be there soon. This was succeeded by a
tumult of wild excitement ; applause after applause rent the
air, until the walls of the old court-house fairly trembled from
reverberating back the sounds. Everything and everybody
were on the qid vive.

" The Chairman, after repeated calls at the top of his voice,
finally succeeded in restoring partial order ; when it was pro
posed that the rules governing the Convention be dispensed
with, and the delegates elected by general acclamation. This
seemed to be very gratifying to every one, as it hastened the ter
minus of the proceedings. Nominations were then made, and
the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, of Montgomery, and C. Hughes,
of Butler, were elected delegates, and George W. Houk, of
Dayton, and D. "W. Van Dyke, of Warren, alternates, with
Judge Gilmore, of Preble, as the elector, to represent the Third
Congressional District at Chicago.

"Before the business of the Convention was completed,
however, the shout was raised that Yal. was coming, and a
rush was made to meet him. With great difficulty he made
his way through the throng of people that gathered around
him, sometimes borne upon their shoulders, then half walking,
half carried until he reached the platform. The meeting of
the Convention was then closed in the midst of excitement,
and the distinguished ' exile ? conducted to a stand erected in
the court-yard, where he delivered a short address to the
immense crowd of people who by this time had gathered to
hear and see him ; and being once more upon the soil of his
native State — in his own District, where for three successive
terms he had been the choice of the people to represent them
in the National Congress — Mr. Vallandigham said : —

" Men of Ohio : — To-day I am again in your midst, and
upon the soil of my native State. To-day I am once more
within the District which for ten years extended to me the highest
confidence, and three times honored me as its Representative
in the Congress of the United States. I was accused of no
crime against the Constitution or laws, and guilty of none;
but whenever and wherever thus charged upon due process of
law, I am now here ready to answer before any civil court of
competent jurisdiction, to a jury of my countrymen, and in the
meantime to give bail in any sum which any Judge or court,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 357

State or Federal, may affix ; and you, the hundred and eighty-
six thousand Democrats of Ohio, I offer as my sureties. Never
for one hour have I remained in exile because I recognised any
obligation of obedience to the unconstitutional and arbitrary
edict, neither did personal fear ever restrain me. And to
day I return of my own act and pleasure, because it is my con
stitutional and legal right to return. Only by an exertion of
arbitrary power, itself against the Constitution and law, and
consummated by military force, I was abducted from my home
and forced into banishment. The assertion or insinuation of
the President that I was arrested ' because laboring with some
effect to prevent the raising of troops and to encourage desertion
from the army/ and was responsible for numerous acts of
resistance to the draft and to the arrest of deserters, causing
* assassination, maiming and murder ;' or that at any time, in any
way, I had disobeyed or failed to counsel obedience to the law
ful authority, or even to the semblance of law, is absolutely
false. I appeal for the proof to every speech I ever made upon
those questions, and to the very record of the mock Military
Commission by the trial and sentence of which I was outraged.
No ; the sole offence then laid to my charge was words of criti
cism of the public policy of the Administration, addressed to an
open and public political meeting of my fellow-citizens of Ohio
lawfully and peaceably assembled. And to-day my only
' crime ' is, that in the way which they call treason, worship I the
Constitution of my fathers. But for now more than one year
no public man has been arrested, and no newspaper suppressed
within the States adhering still to the Union, for expression
of political opinion ; while hundreds, in public assembly and
through the press, have with a license and violence in which I
never indulged, criticised and condemned the acts and policies
of the Administration, and denounced the war, maintaining
even the propriety and necessity of the recognition of Southern
independence. Endorsed by nearly two hundred thousand
freemen of the Democratic party of my native State at the late
election, and still with the sympathy and support of millions
more, I do not mean any longer to be the only man of that
party who is to ,be the victim of arbitrary power. If Abraham
Lincoln seeks my life, let him so declare ; but he shall not
again restrain me of my personal liberty, except upon ' due pro
cess of law.' The unconstitutional and monstrous ' Order

358 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

No. 38/ under which alone I was arrested thirteen months ago,
was defied and spit upon at your State Convention of 1863
by the gallant gentleman who bore the standard as your candi
date for Lieutenant-Governor, and by every Democratic press
and public speaker ever since. It is dead. From the first it
was against the Constitution and laws, and without validity ;
and all proceedings under it were and are utterly null and void
and of no effect. The indignant voice of condemnation long
since went forth from the vast majority of the people and press
of America, and from all free countries in Europe, with entire
unanimity. And more recently, too, the < platform 7 of an earn
est, numerous and most formidable convention of the sincere
Republicans, and still further, the emphatic letter of acceptance
by the candidate of that Convention, General JohnC. Fremont,
the first candidate also of the Republican party for the Presi
dency eight years ago, upon the rallying cry of Free Speech
and a Free Press, give renewed hope that at last the reign of
arbitrary power is about to be brought to an end in the United
States. It is neither just nor fit, therefore, that the wrongs in
flicted under ' Order Thirty-Eight/ and the after-edicts and acts
of such power, should any longer be endured — certainly not
by me alone. But every ordinary means of redress has first
been exhausted ; yet either by the direct agency of the Admin
istration and its subordinates, or through its influence or intim
idation, or because of want of jurisdiction in the civil courts to
meet a case which no American ever in former times conceived
to be possible here, all have failed. Counsel applied in my
behalf to an unjust judge for the writ of habeas corpus. It was
denied ; and now the privilege of that writ is suspended by Act
of Congress and Executive order in every State. The Demo
cratic Convention of Ohio, one year ago, by a resolution for
mally presented through a committee of your best and ablest
men, in person, at Washington, demanded of the President,
in behalf of a very large minority of the people, a revoca-
cation of the edict of banishment. Pretending that the public
safety then required it, he refused, saying at the same time
that t it would afford him pleasure to comply as soon as he
could by any means be made to believe that the public safety
would not suffer by it.' One year has elapsed, yet this hollow
pretence is still tacitly asserted ; and to-day I am here to prove
it unfounded in fact. I appealed to the Supreme Court of the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 359

United States ; and because Congress had never conferred juris
diction in behalf of a citizen tried by a tribunal unknown for
such purposes to the law, and expressly forbidden by the Con
stitution, it was powerless to redress the wrong. The time has
therefore arrived when it becomes me, as a citizen of Ohio and
of the United States, to demand, and by my own act to vindi
cate, the rights, liberties and privileges which I neyer forfeited,
but of which for so many months I have been deprived.
Wherefore, men of Ohio, I am again in your midst to-day. I
owe duties to the State and am here to discharge them. I have
rights as a citizen, and am hereto assert them : a wife and child
and home, and would enjoy all the pleasures which are implied
in these cherished words. But I am here for peace, not turbu
lence; for quiet, not convulsion; for order and law, not anarchy .
Let no man of the Democratic party begin any act of violence
or disorder ; but let none shrink from any responsibility, how
ever urgent, if forced upon him. Careful of the rights of others,
let him see to it that he fully and fearlessly exact his own.
Subject to rightful authority in all things, let him submit to
excess or ursupation in nothing. Obedient to Constitution and
law, let him demand and have the full measure of protection
which law and Constitution secure to him.

" Men of Ohio : — You have already vindicated your right
to hear : it is now my duty to assert my right to speak. Where
fore, as to the sole offence for which I was arrested, imprisoned
and banished, free speech in criticism and condemnation of the
Administration, an Administration fitly described in a recent
public paper by one of its early supporters, k marked at home
by disregard of constitutional rights, by its violation of personal
liberty and the liberty of the press, and, as its crowning shame,
by its abandonment of the right of asylum, a right especially
dear to all free nations abroad:' I repeat here to-day, and
will again, and yet again, so long as I live, or the Constitution
and our present form of Government shall survive, the
words then spoken and the appeal at that time made, and now
enforced by one year more of taxation and debt, and of blood
and disaster, entreating the people to change the public servants
and their policy, not by force, but peaceably, through the ballot.
I now and here reiterate in their utmost extent and with all
their significancy, I repeat them, one and all, in no spirit of
challenge or bravado, but as earnest, sober, solemn truth and
warning to the people.

360 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"Upon another subject allow me here a word.

"A powerful, widely spread and very dangerous secret^
oath-bound combination among the friends of the Administra
tion, known as the ' Loyal Union League/ exists in every State;
yet the very men who control it charge persistently upon the
members of the Democratic party that they have organised —
especially in the Northwest — the 'Order of Knights of the
Golden Circle/ or some other secret society, treasonable or
' disloyal ' in its character, affiliated with the South, and for the
purpose of armed resistance to the authority of the Federal and
State Governments. Whether any such ever existed I do not
know i but the charge that organizations of that sort, or having
any such purpose, do now exist among members of that party
in Ohio or other non-slaveholding States, is totally and posi
tively false. That lawful political or party associations have-
been established, having as their object the organising and
strengthening of the Democratic party, and its success in the
coming Presidential election, and designed as a counter-move
ment to the so-called ( Union Leagues/ and therefore secret in
their proceedings, is very probable ; and however objectionable
hitherto, and in ordinary times, I recognise to the fullest extent
not the lawfulness only, but the propriety and necessity of such
organizations; for 'when bad men combine, good men must
associate/ But they are no conspiracy against the Government,
and their members are not conspirators, but patriots — men not
leagued together for the overthrow of the Constitution or the
laws, and still less of liberty, but firmly united for the preser
vation and support of these great objects. There is indeed a
' conspiracy ' very powerful, very ancient, and I trust that
before long I may add strongly consolidated also, upon sound
principles and destined yet to be triumphant — a conspiracy
known as the Democratic party, the present object of which is
the overthrow of the Administration in November next, not by
force, but through the ballot-box1, and the election of a President
who shall be true to his oath, to liberty, and the Constitution.
This is the sole conspiracy of which I know anything ; and I
am proud to be one of the conspirators. If any other exist,
looking to unlawful armed resistance to the Federal or State
authorities anywhere in the exercise of their legal and consti
tutional rights, I admonish all persons concerned that the act
is treason and the penalty death. But I warn also the men in

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 361

power that there is a vast multitude, a host whom they cannot
number, bound together by the strongest and holiest ties, to
defend by whatever means the exigencies of the times shall
demand, their natural and constitutional rights as freemen, at
all hazards and to the last extremity.

" Three years have now passed, men of Ohio, and the great
issue, Constitutional Liberty and Free Popular Government, is
still before you. To you I again commit it, confident that in
this the time of their greatest peril you will be found worthy
of the ancestors who for so many ages in England and America,
on the field, in prison and upon the scaffold, defended them
against tyrants and usurpers, whether in council or in arms."

The welcome which Mr. Vallandigham received from the
Democracy of the whole country was of the most cordial and
enthusiastic kind. The following from the Philadelphia Age
reflects the spirit of the Democratic press throughout the
Union : —

" Mr. Yallandigham has returned from exile in Canada, to
his home in Dayton, Ohio. He should be welcomed by every
true friend of constitutional liberty. He has been a martyr
for those great principles which underlie our republican form
of government, and for his bold advocacy of them has been
punished by a process unknown to the law. We are sure that
every Democrat is glad that Mr. Vallandigham has thus cut
the Gordian knot and brought the Lincoln Administration
squarely to the issue. "We will now have the great question
tried whether a military tool of a fanatical party has the right
to seize a citizen and send him into exile. If Mr. Lincoln
allows Mr. Vallandigham to remain in Ohio unmolested, he
virtually acknowledges that the arrest and punishment by mil
itary commission was an outrage. If, on the contrary, Mr.
Lincoln sends his minions to again arrest Mr. Vallandigham,
he will provoke a new contest. The Democracy of Ohio and
Illinois have pledged themselves to protect the exile against
everything but judicial process, and no ruler with a Southern
rebellion on his hands will dare to trifle with the feelings of
the millions of the West.

362 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"Already the fanatics are beginning to urge a second arrest
of Mr. Vallandigham. Not satisfied with the blood already
spilled, they wish to spread the desolation of war further. A
free citizen is arrested for no crime, and after a mock trial by
an illegal tribunal, is sent out of the country. He returns
again ; finding that the Government will not repair the wrong
done, he falls back upon his reserved rights, and does it him
self. He returns to his country, and receives a welcome, spon
taneous and heartfelt, before which the tinsel and hollowness
of his oppressor's reception in Philadelphia pales. Pie goes to
his home, and his fellow-citizens resolve to stand by him. In
Illinois they endorse the determination of their Ohio brethren ;
and now, if another outrage is attempted, the people who for
so long submitted to insult and oppression, will defend their
rights and liberties with their own hands. We think Mr.
Lincoln will quail before the firm front of the West. Mr. Val-
iandigham will be unmolested. The joker and his party will
be too cowardly to try a new outrage.

"Mr. Vallandigham goes to the Chicago Convention, to
which he has been elected as delegate, with great eclat. To
represent a constituency who desire free speech, he braves all
the bayonets and bastiles of the Abolition party. We know
he will do his whole duty at the Convention, and that every
delegate will extend a welcome to the man who has, perhaps,
made more sacrifice for his principles than any other patriot in
America. The great Democratic party must support him. He
has done only what was right. He has committed no wrong,
been guilty of no crime. He has acted only as a free citizen
of a free country should do ; and if the Administration again
attempt its injustice, it will find there are millions of men in
the North as free, as bold, and as determined as Mr. Vallan
digham."

The New York News thus notices his return : —

" His presence before the Convention created general sur
prise and the most unbounded enthusiasm. Every link be
tween himself and his fellow-citizens seems to have been
strengthened by exile. He spoke in the public square at Ham
ilton, in the same manly vein and in the same spirit of in
dependence and patriotism that were his characteristics before

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 363

he was kidnapped from his home by the military power. His
martyrdom has not cooled the ardor of his patriotism nor en
feebled the vigor of his eloquence. He was banished for utter
ing truths that were unpalatable to the Administration, and he
has marked the day of his return by repeating the offence
against tyranny. We do not know what action th.e Adminis
tration propose to take in regard to his return, but we are con
vinced that popular opinion will protect him in the exercise of
his rights as an American citizen."

Mr. Vallandigham came home with the intention of stay
ing. Had any attempt been made to violently and illegally
arrest him, he would have resisted. Within the Union and
under the Stars and Stripes he would have fought for his con
stitutional rights, and a million of brave men would have
flocked to his standard and gallantly sustained him. This the
Administration knew, and wisely forbore to molest him.

A few weeks after his return, Mr. Yallandigham met with
a sore domestic affliction in the death of his revered and be
loved mother. Hearing of her illness he was anxious to visit
her, but though secure at home, surrounded and guarded by
his friends, it was not yet considered safe for him to travel.
Unable to see her, he wrote her the following letter : —

'DAYTON, OHIO, July 7th, 1864.
" My dearest, dear Mother : —

"That I cannot with safety start to see you in your
present illness, is the sorest of afflictions. But while I
feel perfectly secure here, I think the Administration would
be but too glad to find me alone at a distance from home.
This danger too will pass by before long, but at present it
may be too imminent to risk; and I know, my dearest mother,
terrible as the trial is to both, you would not want me sub
jected to imprisonment again. And besides, I cannot help
hoping, and indeed believing, that you will yet be spared this

364 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

time, so that I can come and spend a happy time with you yet
in the dear old home. But give yourself no uneasiness in any
event about me. 'The Lord is my shepherd/ Neither fear
for E. nor R. I will do all for them in my power,
and they will remain at the old homestead. Oh how great
is the denial which keeps me away from you ! But L.
and C. go, and she will tell you all and do all for you that
I could. So good-bye, dearest, dear mother. Still hoping
and expecting to see you this summer on earth,

" I am yet, as all my life, your devoted and affectionate son}

" CLEMENT.
" Mrs. R Yallandigham, New Lisbon, Ohio."

The day after he wrote this letter, and before it reached her,
she departed this life, and hearing of her death he wrote the
following letter to his brother James : —

"DAYTON, OHIO, July 10th, 1864.

"My Dear Brother: — Yours of the 8th I received yester
day. On the day previous I received also the despatch to the
Empire announcing the death of our dear blessed mother.
Words cannot express the feelings of my heart at the thought
that I have not been in a position to enable me to be with her
and with you all. But it is a part of the evil times upon
which we have fallen. Her death was somewhat unexpected,
for until Mr. Robertson's letter of the 4th inst. I did not feel
that there was any danger, and even then I hoped that she
might become better for a little while longer, so that I might
see her yet again. But Providence ordered it otherwise. She
was indeed a noble mother, and I reckon it among the chief
of my blessings that I was the son of such a mother. She
was too a truly pious woman, and no purer spirit ever entered
upon the eternal rest of heaven. Though I could not see her
before her death, I rejoice that she lived to see my return to
my own country and home."

It was Mr. "Vrallandigham?s intention when he returned to
remain for some time quietly at home, and partake of that
domestic enjoyment in his own family and beneath his own

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 365

roof of which for more than a year he had been deprived. But
he was continually invited to attend and address political meet
ings, and some of these invitations he felt constrained to accept.
On the 13th of August a peace-meeting was held in Dayton,
composed not only of Democrats but also of some Republicans
who were beginning to grow weary of the war. Mr. Vallan-
digham did not intend to be present, or at least to take any
active part in the meeting. After its organization, however, he
was waited upon by a committee appointed by the meeting, and
at their urgent request addressed the assemblage.

On the 18th a similar meeting was held in Syracuse, New
York. Mr. Vallandigham had declined a written invitation,
but a special messenger was sent for him and would take no
denial, and he accordingly went. It was an immense meeting,
the number in attendance estimated at seventy-five thousand,
and the greatest enthusiasm prevailed. He addressed the vast
multitude in an earnest speech, advocating peace, urging the
calling of a Convention of all the States to agree upon terms
of settlement between the contending parties and the restoration
of the old Union — the glorious Union established by the
fathers.

On the 29th of August the Democratic Convention to nomi
nate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the
United States, met in Chicago. Mr. Vallandigham attended
as a delegate from the Third Congressional District of Ohio.
His reception was of the most flattering character ; all seemed
eager to do honor to the man who had suffered so much in
defence of Democratic principles and the rights and liberties
of the people. He was frequently called out to address vast
assemblages collected in the streets, and he also took an active

366 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

part in the deliberations of the Convention; and when General
McClellan was nominated, he moved that the nomination be
made unanimous. General McClellan was not his first choice,
but finding that he was more acceptable to the Convention than
any other candidate, and having confidence in his ability and
integrity, he voted for him, and in the canvass gave him an
earnest and cordial support. \.

Although by a combination he was defeated for Chairman
of the Committee on Resolutions, yet Mr. Vallandigham
secured practically a triumph in the Committee on the report
which they made to the Convention. He did not, as we have
said before, regard favorably the nomination of General
McClellan, and many of his best friends of the radical Dem
ocrats were surprised and some of them angered by his motion
to make the nomination unanimous. In doing so, Mr. Val-
landigham was governed by these motives : he had long been
looked upon as an extreme man in his views ; he had been held
responsible for Democratic defeats, on account of his alleged
rashness and violence ; there was that feeling in the Conven
tion, that if he had said the word it would have been broken
up; he felt that he would do wrong to himself and to his
country to assume the responsibility of such a movement ; and
as the nomination had been made, the platform being acceptable
to him, it was better to make the best of the situation. So
through his efforts the nomination was made unanimous. For
this, and on account of failure to secure a more distinct recog
nition of the principle of State rights in the platform, he was
accused of weakness by some few of the extreme State rights
men. But fortunately for him, most of the men who made
this accusation of want of firmness were individuals who had

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 367

quailed before the storm, or had been entirely unheard of at
the time when he, in 1861, almost single-handed and alone,
with unflinching courage and undeviating firmness, had faced
the full fury of its blast.

There is a class of men who flatter themselves that they
know exactly what should have been done, and what they
would have done if they had been placed in the position of
men of power and influence, but it is a singular fact that these
wise critics never attain the position nor acquire the power
amongst men to put their wisdom, their courage, and their
firmness into practical exercise. When McClellan's letter of ac
ceptance came out, which apparently repudiated a portion of
the platform, Mr. V. was highly indignant, at first refused to
give the General any further support, and expressed in the
violence of his anger his regrets that he had ever lent any
countenance to his nomination ; but upon calm reflection and
counsel with wise and influential Democrats, being convinced
that he would have considerable influence in shaping the policy
of the Democratic candidate if he was elected, he concluded,
as between Mr. Lincoln and General McClellan, the latter was
greatly preferable.

In the campaign that followed Mr. Vallandigham took an
active part, addressing meetings in New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania, and many in his own State. And at these
meetings he spoke with the same freedom and boldness and
earnestness that he had been accustomed to use before his ban
ishment — denouncing the abuses of the Administration and
their encroachments on the rights of the people, and urging
the adoption of those measures that would result in an imme
diate close of the war and the speedy restoration of the
Union.

368 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

The campaign closed with the election in November, and
Mr. Yallandigham gladly retired to his home, where in atten
tion to his private affairs, which had for a long time been much
neglected, in reading and study, and in the society of his
family and friends, he pleasantly spent the winter.

CHAPTEK XY.

PARTISAN PROSCRIPTION AND THE SONS OF
LIBERTY.

ONE of the saddest parts of the task of giving the story of
Mr. Vallandigham's life during the war, is the necessity of
reviving the memories of the outrages committed by the dom
inant party during that melancholy period of our history.
Thousands upon thousands of men, noble, kind, and generous
in their impulses naturally, were so carried away by the mad
ness which ruled the hour, that it was utterly impossible for
them to do justice to the motives and feelings of their Demo
cratic neighbors, and in some instances they were guilty of acts
which will prey upon their minds as long as they live. The
very demon of hate took possession of the souls of many who
had never been suspected before of possessing any other than
the most kind and amiable feelings. The writer has heard
numbers of Eepublicans, in late years, since the excitement is
over, and opportunity been furnished calmly and dispassion
ately to review the past, express profound and no doubt sin
cere regret for their violence, uncharitableness and bitterness in
those sad days. It is because so many men now living feel
tin's way that it is unpleasant to recall the declarations, acts,,
cruelties, and persecutions of the Kepublican party at that
period against their Democratic fellow-citizens. Yet it would
24

370 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM.

be utterly impossible to give a correct idea of Mr. Vallandig-
ham and his political career without adverting to these things.
When the war commenced, a reign of terror was inaugur
ated all over the land. Freedom of speech and of the press
was for a while entirely suppressed. Very early was Mr. Val-
landigham a special object of attack : it was attempted to pro
scribe him politically, to cast him outside of the pale of the
church, and to ostracise him socially, and for a time it required
considerable moral courage to induce a man openly and pub
licly to avow friendship for him. During a part of 1862 this
feeling for a short time moderated, but in 1863 it broke out
again with tenfold fury, and was maintained until after the close
of the war. Arbitrary arrests took place all over the country.
Democratic speakers were mobbed, Democratic meetings were
suppressed, and hundreds of Democrats all over the country
were imprisoned, and some murdered in cold blood, for no other
reason than because they were Democrats, and refused to as
sent to the policy of the then existing Administration. It was
in consequence of this condition of affairs, and the existence
of secret societies armed and organised in support of the
Republican party, that the organization known as the Sons of
Liberty was formed. It was organised as an offset to the
Loyal Leagues and other secret societies of the dominant party,
for the purpose of defending Democratic presses, meetings, and
speakers, for the mutual protection of its members, and for the
protection of the ballot-box. The organization proper had no
affiliation and no purpose to affiliate with the men in the South
who were fighting for separation. There were men, however,
who were in favor of disunion that joined it, and in some
places endeavored to use it to further the cause of Southern

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 371

independence ; but this was not warranted by the constitution
or ritual of the order, and wholly unauthorised by its chief
officers. Mr. Vallandigham and many wise, reflecting men
regarded the liberties of ihe country in danger; they were
willing to submit to any amount of personal abuse and ob
loquy while the ballot remained free, but should it be assailed
and its freedom destroyed, they had determined to fight, and
therefore they resolved to organise.

Many years before the war, a secret society having for its
main objects the acquisition of Mexico and Cuba, was organised.
It was commenced in the South, but extended northward as
time advanced. From the objects of the organization it can be
well understood that a majority of its members were Southern
men, and in the North were Democrats. It was called the
Knights of the Golden Circle, K. G. C. After the war com
menced the Northern members of this society made several
modifications in its constitution and ritual, and it was rechris-
tened and became the Order of American Knights, O. A. K.
In 1863, for the reasons already mentioned, the necessity of
some kind of organization for mutual protection among Demo
crats was seriously felt, and during the latter part of that year
a movement commenced to change the organization of the
O. A. K.'s and make it a great political society, and to extend
its power and usefulness throughout the United States. As
early as the year 1862, Mr. Vallandigham had been applied to
by members of the Order of 4.merican Knights to join that
organization, but had refused because he apprehended that it
might have some connection with the Southern Government,
or place the members of it under some sort of obligation that
was inconsistent with the oath of allegiance of a citizen of the

372 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANBIGHAM.

United States. He was again spoken to on the subject in the
first part of 1863, but again refused for the same reasons and
because of his opposition to secret political societies generally,
and for the additional reason that the fall elections in 1862
were so favorable to the Democracy that it appeared improbable
that the Administration would dare to continue much longer its
persecutions of Democrats and illegal arrests. But his own
arrest soon after, and the conduct of the Administration and
the Republican party during the year following that event, con
vinced him of the absolute necessity of organising for the pro
tection of life, liberty and property, and to guard against any
attack upon the ballot-box. He was not long in making known
to parties interested his views upon the subject ; and in conver
sation with members of the Order of American Knights in the
early part of 1864, he communicated to them the information
that if he was allowed the privilege of modifying any objec
tionable features in its constitution, and if the whole thing was
remodelled, he would be willing to join it.

About the middle of February 1864, Mr. Green and Dr.
James A. Barrett visited him in regard to this matter, at
Windsor, Canada West. Of this interview, in his testimony
before the Military Commission which tried L. P. Milligan,
Esq., he gave the following account : —

"After discussing some political questions, they detailed
their business, saying that they were on their way to New York
to attend the meeting of the Supreme Council of what was, as
I understood, the Order of American Knights; that some
material changes were to be made in it, or something to be
done in connection with it. They said that it numbered many
thousands, and they desired that I would become the chief officer
of it. My answer was, that I had understood there was some

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM 373

such organization perhaps known by that name, in existence a
year or more ; that I never heard of it previous to the fall
of 1862; that I had always declined having any connection
with it because I apprehended that it might have some connec
tion with the Southern Government, or place members of it
under some sort of obligation with reference to that Government
that was inconsistent with the oath of allegiance of a citizen of
the United States ; and that I would belong to none, directly or
indirectly, looking to any sort of connection with those who
were in arms against the Federal authorities. I went on then
to express my convictions as to secret political organizations ;
that circumstances altered cases, and whereas I had always
hitherto opposed them as a member of the Democratic party,
now I believed the time had come when they were useful
and necessary, provided they were kept legitimate and lawful.
The assurance was given by these gentlemen that there was noth
ing of the kind I had apprehended ; at all events there was to
be a change made, or a new arrangement in the organization, and
that all objections of that kind, if any existed, would be obvi
ated. And further, that all they proposed was a simple and
informal communication of the ritual, principles and obliga
tions. With reference to the purposes of which I have spoken,
they assured me that it was only a political organization,
having reference to affairs in the States that had adhered to the
Union and recognised the Federal Government and its authori
ties. I accordingly consented, and informally, by reading in
part and showing in part, without any attempt at ceremony,
the ritual, principles and obligations were made known to me.
No part of any of them was read in full to me, but the books
and pamphlets were left with me for examination. The prin
cipal objects with reference to which I made inquiry, as stated
there, were declared to be of a political character, and for the
defence of members of the Democratic party."

Messrs. Barrett and Green, after their interview with him,
then proceeded to New York to attend the Supreme Council
of their Order. At this Council the organization known as
"The Sons of Liberty" was formed; the ritual with some mo
dification of the O. A. K.?s was adopted, but in a good many

374 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

respects changes were made with what had been the constitu
tion of the latter association. About the 1st of March, 1864,
H. H. Dodd and Dr. Massey, who had been present at the
meeting in New York, came to Windsor to see Mr. Vallandig-
ham and inform him of what had been done. They brought
him word that he had been chosen chief officer of the new organi
zation. They informed him also of the details of the ritual
and the new constitution which had been adopted, but brought
no copy of it with them ; and Mr. V. never saw a printed copy of
it until the 28th of March, 1865, when to all practical purposes
the society had been disbanded. After hearing the explana
tions of these gentlemen of the objects in view, becoming satis
fied that nothing beyond the protection of Democrats and
rightful resistance to any attempts to interfere with freedom of
elections was contemplated, he agreed to be sworn in as Grand
Commander of the Sons of Liberty. The oath of office was
administered by Dr. Massey, and it was simply " to support
the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully to dis
charge the duties of chief officer of the organization."

Scarcely three weeks had elapsed after the inauguration of
Mr. Vallandigham as the Grand Commander of the Sons of
Liberty, before the mighty impulse of his strong will and
determined energy was felt all over the great States of the North
west. Lodges were organised in almost every county in the
States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, by the time the frosty
empire of winter had given way to the gentle but potent in
fluences of Spring ; and in other States the organization rapidly
increased in numbers, so that in the month of June over two
hundred thousand men had been initiated. The secret agents
were everywhere at wrork ; and in every little village and ham-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 375

let in the States we have mentioned, during the spring of
1864, the mysterious gatherings assembled in strange and out-
of-the-way places, and were instructed in the doctrine and the
ritual of the order. But an organization so novel and so wide
spread could not long escape the attention of the members of
the Republican party or elude the vigilance of the Adminis
tration, and there was scarcely a city of any size where the
Sons of Liberty had any strength that had not amongst the
members of the association some spy or detective. Mr. Val-
landigham quickly discovered that there was scarcely anything of
general importance made known to the members of the organ
ization that was not immediately communicated to the Adminis
tration, and he soon became wearied of a system which had in it the
element of secrecy which provokes obloquy without any of the
advantages which flow from concealment and reticence in polit
ical affairs. In fact, his temper of mind was such that con
cealment or duplicity of any kind was hateful to him. He
was disgusted, too, by the absurd ritual and the ridiculous
ceremonies of initiation, and continually angered by the im
prudence of members of the order. He was so thoroughly
convinced of the failure of the organization as a secret society
that he did not communicate to any one of its members his
contemplated return on the 15th of June, and his arrival in
Hamilton was as complete a surprise to the Sons of Liberty as
to the Loyal Leagues of Ohio.

In the latter part of May he became suspicious that an effort
was being made to use the Sons of Liberty for the furtherance
of the cause of disunion, to make it an offensive instead of a
defensive organization. In an interview with a Confederate
agent he satisfied himself that the Confederate Administration

376 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

would .not make any alliance with the Democrats of the North
west except upon the terms of absolute separation forever
Immediately after this he had a meeting with one of his
"Western coadjutors, who was actually in favor of assisting the
South without any promise or guarantee from their so-called
government of a restoration of the Union, or even the admis
sion of the Western States to a new Union. Upon learning
the views of this gentleman, Mr. Vallandigham became
violently excited. With flashing eye and clenched fist he de
nounced the stupidity of the men who were willing to precip
itate a revolution and fight for a government which, if suc
cessful in accomplishing its independence, would consider them
aliens and outcasts. " I will fight for no cause," he exclaimed,
"wherein victory itself is dishonor; I will fight for no gov
ernment by which my State is to be regarded as a foreign land
forever. I do not believe the present Administration of the
Confederate States represents the views of the people of the
South. They are too generous and too brave to expect men
whom they intend to regard forever as aliens, to fight their
battles for them. They are opposed to the Union simply as
symbolised by Lincoln and Company, but they cannot oppose
a Union where their enemies, as well as ours, shall be politi
cally buried. But if the madness of the Southern leaders re
fusing a re-union upon most favorable terms shall result in the
destruction and subjugation of the Southern people, I am de
termined to see to it that my friends, the noble, gallant
thousands who stood by me, and who now stand by me, an
exile and an outcast, shall not suffer in the same way and
become involved in the same wreck. Not a hand shall be
offered to assist the Southern people nor a shot fired in their

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 377

favor if I can control the Sons of Liberty, until it is distinctly
understood that the idea of permanent disunion is entirely
given up and completely abandoned. If I hear of any further
developments, under existing circumstances, of attempts of
members of our order to assist the Southern Government, I
will myself inform the Lincoln Administration, and see that
the authors of a worse than abortive revolution are promptly
punished."

This was substantially his language, but any one unac
quainted with him can form but a faint idea of the force and
earnestness with which it was uttered. He sent orders to all
his subordinate commanders to beware of any coalition with
Southern agents, or any movement calculated to change the
order from being a society for defence merely and mutual pro
tection, to an offensive and revolutionary organization. Not
withstanding all his efforts and watchfulness, however, some of
the order were induced to join in plans of action which rendered
them liable to the charge of treason. These plans were indus
triously encouraged by detectives employed by the Federal
Government, and upon the 16th of August it was understood
in several lodges of the order that an uprising against the
Federal Government should take place. Knowing well Mr. Y.'s
views upon the subject, he was not informed of it, and therefore
upon that very day started east to speak in New York. This
uprising would have probably occurred had not three things
conspired to prevent. First, there was no competent head
directing the movement; second, it was discovered in time
that the movement was not only not known by the Grand Com
mander, but was against his most positive injunctions ; third,
in places where men were rash enough to disregard the reasons

378 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

above mentioned, the Administration being perfectly well aware
of all the details of the movement, prevented its development
by the proper military and police disposition.

Some time after this Mr. V. was informed of it, and his
indignation knew no bounds. " What do these men mean,"
he cried, "by acting against my express orders ? Do they think
I will submit to such dangerous insubordination, which endan
gers not only the success of the Democracy as a party, but puts
our wives and children in jeopardy ? " He was told that it was
expected that a revolution once being started, he would be
dragged in, and it was desired that he should be the head of it.
" I want to be the head of it then before it starts, if it has to be
done ; and as for being dragged into anything, they little under
stand the character of the man they are dealing with if they
imagine for one moment that I can be dragged into a movement
which my j udgment does not approve of." The account of these
interviews we receive from a man of strong secession or Southern
feelings, who was very much disappointed at the position taken
by Mr. Yallandigham. While it is probably nearly correct, it
is very likely that, unconsciously to himself, it is somewhat
colored by passing through the medium of his own feelings and
prejudices. It is not to be expected in a work of this kind that
any complete history of the doings of the Sons of Liberty can
be given ; this much we give in order to vindicate Mr. Val-
landigham from the false charges that were made against him in
connection with this organization. Much of their proceedings
in different parts of the country were never known to him ; but
the organization had an important influence in preventing the
general use of actual force in the elections of 1864. During
the campaign of that year, the feverish excitement amongst the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 379

people was such that but very little imprudence upon the part
of the leaders of either of the great parties would have pre
cipitated the country into a civil war.

From the time that Mr. Vallandigham came home — the
15th of June, 1864 — until after the Presidential election, he
was continually surrounded and followed by detectives. Yet,
although constantly under their espionage, nothing was ever
discovered, in language or conduct, which could possibly be
construed as treasonable, or which rendered him justly liable to
arrest by the United States authorities. The reason was that
he had no hidden, treasonable views upon the subject of the
war, as his enemies supposed. At last one of these detectives,
who had heard repeatedly his private conversations and de
clarations, gave up his pursuit in disgust, and reported :
" Vallandigham talks no more like a rebel in private, no, not
as much as he does in his public speeches." A great meeting
of the order was held in Chicago at the same time that the
Democratic Convention to nominate a candidate for President
met there. This meeting, which was expected to be of great
importance, really amounted to very little. Mr. Vallandigham's
course here provoked the animosity of many of the extreme
men of the order, and by some of them he was unjustly ac
cused of using the order merely for his own personal protection,
without having any ulterior object. On the other hand, Mr.
Vallandigham believed that the course advocated by some of
them was calculated to lead to a permanent division of the
country, and to this he was utterly opposed. His views on
this subject are clearly and ably set forth in his letter to the
Young Men's Democratic Association of Lancaster, from which
we make the following extract: —

380 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" The fatal mistake of the South, her ( blunder,' which a
false morality pronounces worse than a crime, was in ignoring
ths great American idea of ONE COUNTRY — not an impulse,
not a theory, not a mere aspiration of national vanity, but a
commandment written by the finger of God upon the rivers
and the mountains and the whole lace of the land, and graven
thence upon the hearts of the people. It was this, not anti-
slavery, which held the border slave States in the Union, and
stirred, for good or evil, the whole North and West to such
exertions of military, naval and financial force as never before
were put forth by any nation. And it was this grand and per
vading national sentiment, hedged by the sanction of destiny,
which, according to the measure of my ability, I undertook to
expound and justify in the House of Representatives in 1 863,
and by this line of argumentation to establish that the Union
through peace was inevitable. Nothing but the violence of an
intense counter-passion, and the terrible pressure of civil war,
could have suppressed, even for a time, the power of this
sentiment among the people of the South also. Had their
leaders forborne to demand separation and a distinct govern
ment, adhering to the old flag, and, within the Union under
the Constitution, firmly but justly required new guarantees
for old rights believed to be in peril, they might not indeed
have had barren and deluding sympathy from subjects, and
false hopes of assistance from kings and emperors in Europe
eager for the decline and fall of the American Republic, but
they would have been cheered by the cordial greetings and the
active support of finally an overwhelming majority of the States
and people of the West and North. But when they established
a permanent distinct government, and took up arms for inde
pendence, they marked out between them and us a high wall
and deep ditch which no man, North or West, could pass
without the guilt and the penalties of treason. They went be
yond the teachings of their own greatest statesman of the past
age, for Mr. Calhoun himself had declared, in 1831, that 'the
abuse of power, on part of the agent (the Federal Government),
to the injury of one or more of the members (the States), would
not justify secession on their part: there would be neither the
right nor the pretext to secede/ No matter who was respon
sible originally for that condition of things which led finally
to war, nor what the motives and character of the war after its

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 381

inception — and upon both these questions I entertain and
have expressed opinions as fixed as the solid rock — so far as
the South fought for a separate government she stood wholly
without sympathy or support in the States which adhered to
the Union. Whatever else may happen, her vision of inde
pendence has now melted into air. In the appeal to arms — •
maintained upon both sides for four years with a courage and
endurance grandly heroic — she has failed ; and though it had
happened otherwise, still, in my deliberate conviction, her ex
periment of distinct government would have failed also. But
the sole question really decided by the war, as by peace years
before it had been settled, was that two several governments
could not exist among the States of the American Union."

After the Presidential election of 1864, the Sons of Liberty
were disbanded, or at least as far as we can ascertain no further
meetings of the order were ever held.

We will close this chapter with an extract from a speech
delivered by Mr. Vallandigham at Peoria, Illinois, on the 24th
of October, 1864:—

" And now, first, men of Illinois, a word as to secret socie
ties, of which so much recently has been said, and with which
my name has been connected by telegraph and the Abolition
press. Charges of dark conspiracy are daily heralded, and
even Democratic newspapers are, under the present miserable
arrangement, obliged to make public whatever of falsehood
or forgery their political enemies, who control the ' Associated
Press/ may choose to transmit. Every conceivable organization
within the Democratic party — your clubs, your reading-rooms,
your associations, even your committees — have been denounced
audaciously — yes, by men high in power — as treasonable combi
nations to overthrow the Government. Men of Illinois, I am
here to speak plainly and boldly to-day, upon this as upon
every other question. [Great applause.] How dare the Judge
Advocate-General, upon the eve of a Presidential election, lend
himself to the office of insinuations or open charges of treason
able conspiracy against more than a million and a half of men
who love the Union, revere the Constitution, adore the flag,

382 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and mean to defend their own personal liberty and the liberties
of the country to the last extremity ? [Immense applause.]
In ordinary peaceable times, when we had Constitution and
law in the land as the sole rule of action for our public cvervants,
and when arbitrary power was unknown in America, when
peace and security spread their gentle pinions over every house
hold and there were none to make us afraid, I was hostile to
every form of secret political society. Ten years ago I fought
boldly against just such an organization called the 'Know
Nothings/ made up of the very men who now libel us, but
who then crept through alleys and round corners with dark
lanterns in their hands, seeking their dusky haunts and dens
under cover of the night, though the Constitution was then the
supreme law of the land, and military arrests and military
commissions were alike unknown, and trial under the common
law and by jury was the acknowledged birth-right of every
citizen. But times change ; and our rights and duties, subject
always to the eternal and immutable laws of justice and right,
change with them. The expediency, nay, the necessity of a
secret organization, depends upon the exigencies of the times.
When constitutions are defied and spit upon, and laws set at
naught, and courts of justice supplanted by military commis
sions, and military arrests take the place of ' due process of
law/ and free speech, a free press, free assemblages of the
people, and above all, free elections, are subverted ; when the
whole power and patronage of the Administration, the joint
power of the purse and of the sword, are employed by the
party in authority to perpetuate its domination; and when other
secret, oath-bound, armed and disciplined societies — armed
secretly, but by men in authority, and at the public expense,
and working in the interest of that party — exist and are fos
tered and encouraged everywhere, to overawe and intimidate,
yes, even to assail and beat down the political opponents of the
Administration, it is the right and the duty of the people to
unite together for the protection of their interests, their rights,
and their persons; for 'when bad men combine, good men/
said the great Edmund Burke, 'must associate/ [Loud
applause.] And if they see fit to meet with doors locked, to
require forms and ceremonies, to demand a lawful oath or obli
gation, and to enjoin secrecy, they have the right to do it.
[Renewed applause.] They are not conspirators, but patriots.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 383

The test of lawfulness or unlawfulness does not depend upon
ritual, or obligation, or secrecy, but upon their purpose. If it
be to overthrow the Government, State or Federal ; to resist
judicial process ; to resist the laws of the land or the constituted
authorities of the Government in the exercise of their lawful
powers and rights ; if it be to seize arsenals or other public
property, to release rebel prisoners of war, or in any other way
to 'give aid and comfort' to the enemies of a State or of the
United States, within the constitutional meaning of that term,
then it is an unlawful organization, a conspiracy, whether it be
open or secret, and as I announced on the day of my return to
my home and native State in June last, at Hamilton, 'the
offence is treason and the penalty death/ [Loud applause.]
But we of the Democratic party have a right in times like
these to unite in any sort of organization for the purpose of
advancing the cause and interests of our party, of securing
political power and office by peaceable means — through the
ballot-box. [Applause.] More than that, we have the right,
under the Constitution, and by law and by nature, to defend
our liberties, to protect our persons, to vindicate our rights, and
secure that which Constitution and laws give us, but which
arbitrary power may without due process of law and by the
strong hand attempt to take away. [Great applause.] If not,
then better surrender the form of government which our fathers
made for us, and choose a king at once.

"You hear much just now of a secret organization or order
called the ' Sons of Liberty/ which is said to exist. Well,
gentlemen, I have read carefully all that the spies, detectives,
and informers of this Administration have revealed, and all
that Sanderson, Carrington, Holt, and Mary Ann Pitman have
made public; and am here to-day to say that neither in the
ritual, nor the obligation, nor the lessons or declaration of
principles, is there one word * treasonable ' in its character or
inconsistent with the highest and most delicate allegiance which
an American citizen owes to his country and to its government,
or the duty which an American freeman owes to himself.
[Loud cheers.] The ritual, in itself, is nothing, and the obli
gation nothing ; and as to the principles announced, they are
precisely those to which every American, of every party, here
tofore has subscribed. They are the doctrines of every Demo
cratic presidential convention for the last thirty years. Nay,

384 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

part of them are, word for word, the Virginia and Kentucky
resolutions of 1798, penned by Madison and Jefferson. [Loud
applause.] And yet sixty years later, the doctrines of the
fathers of the Republic, and founders of that great Democratic
party which made the country glorious and great, are de
nounced as ' treason ; ' and they who dare hold them still, as
enemies to their country and conspirators against its govern
ment !

" But, gentlemen, how comes it that in all these startling
revelations, these conspiracies and plots, these secret societies,
this clamor about oaths and obligations and rituals, we hear
nothing of the ' Loyal Union League' and the 'Strong Band/
and other powerful and dangerous secret oath-bound societies,
friendly to the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, lout hostile to
the peace and good order of every community ? Why is Rose-
crans silent ? Why Carrington dumb ? Why has Mary Ann
Pitman no revelation to disclose ; and why even does Judge
Advocate Holt's flatulent eloquence fail to give forth a solitary
rumble ? And yet such organizations exist everywhere, mili
tary in their character, and drilled, disciplined, and armed —
yes, armed with muskets, the public property of the United
States or of the State, and paid for out of taxes wrung from
your hard earnings. Why, it was but a few weeks ago that
the grand council of the Union League of the State of New
York assembled at Syracuse, and sitting as an adjunct of the
Republican State Convention, unanimously adopted this reso
lution :

" 'Resolved, That we earnestly recommend and urge upon the
subordinate councils to organise military companies within their
several bodies, to arm and drill with the utmost diligence, and
with great caution, that no unnecessary occasion of offence be
given to our enemies.9

" What enemies ? Rebels in arms ? Oh no ! The Loyal
League military will never march to the front to be near the
flashing of the guns. Their enemies are their neighbors, the
men and women of the Democratic party at home. To meet
in secret, to require oaths and ceremonies, the burning of frank
incense, of ' gum, thus and myrrh/ to form military com
panies, to arm and drill in order to murder ' copperheads/ or
control elections, is lawful, loyal, patriotic. But all or any
part of this, to aid the principles of Democracy, to promote the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 385

success of that party at the polls, to defend our constitutional,
God-given rights as freemen, is disloyal, is treasonable, is a
conspiracy to overthrow the Government, and to be put down
by the strong arm of the military, — the conspirators not even
being entitled to the privilege, in common with thieves and
other felons, of a trial by jury, and in the judicial courts, and
by the fixed criminal laws of the land. I tell them that we,
the men of the Democratic party, have precisely the same
rights, in this and in all other things, as they have, and ' by
the Eternal ' we mean to exercise them. [Immense applause,
and cries of < Good/ 'We will/ &c.]

" And now as to the real purposes of the so-called 'Sons of
Liberty/ we have it as set forth officially in these words by
Brigadier-General Henry B. Carrington, 'commanding the
district of Indiana/ in a report from headquarters, to Governor
Morton, dated June 28th, 1864 :

" { PURPOSES OF THE ORDER.

" ' It seems that the main purpose is political power by UNION
with the South, regardless of men or measures.'

" That is, without reference to the question of slavery or
slaveholders, just as the Union existed of old. And that, I
believe, is precisely the great object of the whole Democratic
party. So declares the platform of the late Chicago Conven
tion. So says General McClellan when he announces in his
letter of acceptance, that < the sole condition of peace is the
union of the States/ Thanks to General Carrington : stupidity
secured an admission which a more intelligent dishonesty
would have withheld. And yet, after all, if Abraham Lincoln
will but return to Constitution and law as his sole standard
of right and power, and again give us security from arbitrary
arrests and from military commissions for the mock trial of
citizens ; if he will respect freedom of speech, and of the press,
and of elections, as in the time of other Administrations; if his
supporters will break up their Strong Bands and Union
Leagues, and leave us secure in our rights, our property, our
persons from mob violence, then I will gladly say, away with
all secret societies and orders and organizations; disband them,
one and all, at once, and let us come back to the quiet and
peace and openness and good order, and good feeling too, of*
other days. [Applause.] "

25

CHAPTER XVI. 7

PATRIOTISM AND LOVE OF THE UNION.

MR. VALLANDIGHAM was a true patriot. Intimately ac
quainted with him from childhood, we have never met with a
man in whose bosom seemed to glow a more intense love of
country. He loved the South, for it was the home of his an
cestors for more than one hundred and fifty years — their place
of shelter from the storms of persecution in their native land.
He loved the "West, for it was the place of his birth, where
his infancy was cradled and his manhood matured — peopled
too by a race whose energy and earnestness were so congenial
with his own earnest and intense nature. He loved the North,
for it was a part of his country, that country of which he was
proud, whose Constitution he revered, whose institutions he
admired, and for whose peace and unity and prosperity he
diligently labored. It was his desire to know no North, no
South, no East, no West. He loved the whole country: he
was, as he himself expresses it, a United States man. It was
the day-dream of his youth, and even of his mature years,
that he should live to see the centennial anniversary of the
nation's birth, and that on that occasion he should be the
orator, or one of the orators of the day to celebrate the glories
of a free, united, and prosperous country. The charges, there
fore, so frequently made during the war that he was disloyal,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 387

that lie was a disunionist, are utterly false and unfounded.
Some who made them were doubtless honest and sincere; others
knew them to be untrue, and in giving them currency were
actuated entirely by personal or political malignity, or by a
desire to subserve a partisan purpose. No man of sense and
intelligence believes them now, and prominent Republicans in
all parts of the country freely acknowledge not only his ability,
honesty and integrity, but also his patriotism and love of the
Union.

Mr. McCullough, now of the Chicago Republican, who
reported many of his speeches for the Cincinnati Commercial,
and knew him well, makes the following observation in his
paper : —

"In the cheap and unreasoning clap-trap of the day, it is
common to speak of Mr.Vallandigham as a ' rebel/ ' traitor/
or a 'secessionist.' Now, no man can attribute any one of
these epithets to him without confessing himself a fool. Mr.
Vallandigham was as sincerely desirous of the preservation of
the Union as any other living man ; but he had educated him
self into the belief, first, that coercion was unconstitutional,
and secondly, that successful coercion was physically and mo
rally impossible. Hence he was for compromise, for concession,
for arbitration, anything rather than war."

The Rev. F. T. Brown, a college friend, and intimate with
him in after-life, thus speaks of him in a letter to the St. Paul

"Soon after, questions in politics came up on which we
took opposite sides — slavery, the fugitive slave law, State
rights, &c., and when we met again (as we did when he was a
member of Congress and I lived in the district) we both felt
that there was a veil between us, and that we could not be so
free and friendly as we had been. But there was no rupture,
and I for one never (even when he was outlawed, and when,

388 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

with many, his name was the synonym of disloyalty, treason,
and much else that was vile and dishonorable) doubted his
honor, his honesty, or his scrupulous integrity, and I fully
believe the truth of what he said a short time before his un
timely death, viz : ' I tell you, sir, earnestly and honestly, that
I never was a disunionist — that I always did believe, and do
now believe, that this Union will be perpetuated and extended
till it embraces the continent.' He was a man of great abilities,
of a noble independence of character, and of high moral worth ;
and I can not doubt that had he lived, his name ere long would
have been honored by tens of thousands who, but a few years
since, had no words too bad to fling at the ' traitor Vallandig-
ham/ But he is gone. Peace to his memory. And let an
old Republican anti-slavery friend, who loved him. drop a tear
upon his grave."

What Mr. Vallandigham's views were on the abstract right
of secession we are unable to say : he has never, as far as we
know, left them on record. It is the opinion of many of his
friends that he believed in the right, but so great was his love
of the Union that he would make no avowal of that belief,
no affirmation of that right, while the integrity of the Union
was in danger. Many prominent Northern men believed in
the right and openly avowed it, and expressed opinions which
evinced a low appreciation of the value of the Union, and
great indifference as to the importance of earnest effort for its
preservation. In a speech delivered in the House of Repre
sentatives, Jan. 12th, 1848, Abraham Lincoln uses the follow
ing language : —

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the
pov/cr, have the right to rise up and shake off' the existing
Government, and form a new one that suits them better. This
is a most valuable and a most sacred right — a right which we
hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right
confined to the cases in which the whole people of the existing

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 389

Government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such
people that can, may revolutionise and make their own out of
so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this. A
majority of any portion of such people may revolutionise,
putting down a minority, intermingled with or near about
them, who may oppose their movements. Such minority was
precisely the case of the Tories of our revolution."

Benjamin F. Wade, in a speech in the Senate of the United
States, February 23d, 1855, thus speaks : —

" I said there were States in this Union whose highest
tribunals had adjudged that bill to be unconstitutional, and
that I was one of those who believed it unconstitutional ; that
my State believed it unconstitutional ; and that under the old
Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, a State must not only be the
judge of that, but of the remedy in such a case."

Horace Greeley, in November 1860, thus expresses his
views : —

" The telegraph informs us that most of the Cotton States
are meditating a withdrawal from the Union because of Lincoln's
election. Very well: they have a right to meditate, and
meditation is a profitable employment of leisure. We have a
chronic, invincible disbelief in disunion as a remedy for either
Northern or Southern grievances; we can not perceive any
necessary relation between the alleged disease and this ultra-
heroic remedy ; still, we say, if anybody sees fit to meditate dis
union, let them do so unmolested. That was a base and hypo-
critic row that the House once raised, at Southern dictation,
about the ears of John Quincy Adams, because he presented a
petition for the dissolution of the Union. The petitioner had
a right to make the request; it was the member's duty to pre
sent it. And now, if the Cotton States consider the value
of the Union debateable, we maintain their perfect right to dis
cuss it. Nay, we hold with Jefferson to the inalienable right
of communities to alter or abolish forms of government that
have become oppressive or injurious; and if the Cotton States
shall become satisfied that they can do better out of the Union
than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. The right to

390 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

secede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless ;
and we do not see how one party can have a right to do what
another party has a right to prevent. "We must ever resist the
asserted right of any State to remain in the Union and nullify
or defy the laws thereof; to withdraw from the Union is quite
another matter. And whenever a considerable section of our
Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all
coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope never to
live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue
by bayonets."

Sentiments similar to these, expressed in terms much stronger
and more offensive to lovers of the Union, were again and
again advanced by leading Republicans. There were those
among them who insisted that either slavery should be abolished
or the Union should be dissolved. Their cry was " No union
with slaveholders."

\With such sentiments Mr. Vallandigham had no sympathy ;
on the contrary, he sternly denounced them. Whatever may
have been his opinion on the right of secession, he was always
opposed to its exercise, and never for a moment contemplated
a permanent division of the country. At one time he appre
hended a temporary dissolution of the Union, but he believed
that it would be only temporary — that it would be restored,
and he was even then meditating a plan for its speedy restora
tion. In not one of his speeches in Congress or before the
people can there be found a single sentence favoring secession,
or expressing any sentiment inconsistent with the strongest
attachment to the Union. The following quotations from cards
which he published and from speeches which he delivered at
different times during the war, exhibit his real sentiments : —

" My object, the sole motive by which I have been guided
from the beginning of this most fatal revolution — is to MAIN-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 391

TAIN THE UNION, and not to destroy it. When all possible
hope is gone, and the Union irretrievably broken, then, but not
till then, I will be for a Western Confederacy" — Card to Cin
cinnati Enquirer y February 14, 1861.

"Devoted to the Union from the beginning, I will not
desert it now, in this the hour of its sorest trial." — Speech of
January 14, 1863.

" Sir, I am against disunion. I find no more pleasure in a
Southern disunionist than in a Northern or "Westernxlisunion-
ist."— Speech Dec. 15, 1859.

" Never with my consent shall peace be purchased at the
price of DISUNION." — Extract from Speech.

" No order of banishment executed by superior force can
release me from my rights as a citizen of Ohio and of the

United States Every sentiment and expression of

attachment to the Union and devotion to the Constitution — to
my country — which I have ever cherished or uttered, shall
abide unchanged and unretracted until my return." — His
address before banishment.

But, say his enemies, he was opposed to the war. True ;
but does opposition to a war in which a country may unhappily
be engaged necessarily imply disloyalty to the Government?
Tens of thousands of the men of New England were opposed
to the war of 1812 — a war, too, with a powerful foreign foe:
were they regarded as disloyal by the men who in 1861
denounced Mr. Vallandigham ? or did the Government in
1812 ever molest them or interfere with their perfect freedom
in expressing their opinions? Thomas Corwin opposed the
war with Mexico, and on the floor of the Senate denounced
it in unmeasured terms: did the Republicans of 1861 regard
him as a traitor ? Lord Chatham opposed the war of Great
Britain against her colonies in 1776, and in the House of Lords
uttered these bold words : " If I were an American, as I am
an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in my country

392 tlFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

I would never lay down my arms ; no, never, never, never ! "
Was he an enemy to his country, or disloyal to the Government?
Mr. Vallandigham's opposition to the war then was not
disloyal, was not treasonable. Was he in error in the course
he pursued ; is it certain that he was in error ? What says
General ^urbin Ward?

"During the late national contest no man believed more
emphatically that he was right than the speaker did ; no man
was more ready than he to cast the die and to abide the result
of the choice than I, and I have no disposition or desire to
chang.e that opinion at this day; yet who of us can say in the
coming centuries of time, when the events of the past few
years are viewed in the light of history and aside from partisan
influences, whether Clement L. Yallandigham was not only
truly great, but also right ? Who will pretend to say what
the verdict of history will be ? "

The same suggestion is also made by a writer in the New
York Herald, which we here give together with the comments
thereon from another paper : —

" ' It is not for us to pass judgment on his political life.
What is treason to-day may be patriotism to-morrow. But
justice to the dead and to the living impels us to recognise the
purity of the motives which prompted Mr. Vallandigham to
sacrifice his political prospects during the war. He had faults ;
but who is there without them ? He may have erred during
the rebellion ; but are we sure that he erred ? He never re
tracted one word that he uttered in that eventful period, nor
expressed regret that he pursued the course he did. He died
believing he was right, and his sincerity demands our respect,
even as his abilities command our recognition and our admira
tion/

" ' He may have erred during the rebellion/ but the in
quiry arises, f Are we sure that he erred?' Who is to judge?
Certainly not those who differed with Mr. Vallandigham, for
they had an object in misrepresenting and maligning the
motives that prompted him and governed his opinions upon all

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 393

Eublic questions. The most decided opponents of Mr. Val-
indigham conceded to him not only ability, but integrity and
sincerity in his political sentiments and ideas of public policy.
As the Herald writer remarks, referring to his course during
the rebellion, ( he never retracted one word that he had uttered
in that eventful period, nor expressed regret that he pursued
the course he did.' And the Herald adds, ' he died believing
he was right/ And now comes the inquiry, even with those
who differed in toto from Mr. Vallandigham, ' Are we sure
that he erred ? ' This is a question that the actors or partici
pants, those who were contemporaneous with these fearful
scenes, when might and prejudice and passion usurped the
place of law and the individual rights that the Constitution
was intended to and should protect, can not properly answer,
because the same considerations that influenced them then, con
trol them now in a greater or less degree.

" And who that understood the character and appreciated
the motives that prompted Mr. Vallandigham. can doubt his
love of country, and not only his earnest, but intense desire
for its prosperity, progress and glory? And no one can read
his speeches during the rebellion, no matter how intense and
bitter may have been his denunciations of the Administration
for its exercise of arbitrary power, without being convinced
that he thought he was doing right, and that he was maintain
ing the principles that must underlie republican institutions,
if free government is maintained and perpetuated. In a speech
at Dayton, in 1862, he said:

" ' I was born a freeman. I shall die a freeman. It is ap
pointed to all men once to die, and death never comes too soon
to one in the discharge of his duty. I have chosen my course,
have pursued it, have adhered to it to this hour, and will to the
end, regardless of consequences. My opinions are immovable
— fire cannot melt them out of me. I scorn the mob. I defy
arbitrary power/ and as the Herald remarks, Mr. Vallandig
ham ( never retracted one word that he uttered in that eventful
period, nor expressed a regret that he pursued the course he
did/ And we repeat the inquiry, /Are we sure he erred?'
It is not for this generation to say that he erred. ' What is
treason to-day, may be patriotism to-morrow/ Mr. Yallandig
ham sacrificed much in his position. If he had taken an op
posite course, with his conceded abilities and marked qualities

394 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to influence and intensify public sentiment and action, he might
have reached the very top-round of the ladder of fame, and
not only fame, but what those that differed with him regarded
as the highest evidence of patriotism. But all these incentives
to the gratification of ambition for place and power he subor
dinated to what he regarded to be the right. And ' are we
sure that he erred ? * All the results of the terrible civil war
have not yet been developed, and future generations may look
upon the contest and the actors in it from a different stand
point than the present. Mr. Vallandigham never uttered a
sentiment that did not express the most intense devotion to the
Union and the Constitution. And the best evidence of the
purity of the motives that prompted him is found in the sacri
fice he made of his political prospects during the rebellion.
The future historian, unbiased by the prejudices and passions
and interests of those who were actors in the events of the past
ten years, and who will know the fruits of the fearful civil
war, can best determine who erred and who were in the right
in that eventful period."

But even suppose Mr. Vallandigham was in error: his
motives were pure, and honest, and patriotic. It is not true?
as has been sometimes charged, that his course in reference to
the war was influenced by Southern sympathy. He no doubt
had Southern sympathies : he was of Southern descent, he had
lived in the South, and there were many things in Southern
character that he admired ; but those sympathies had not the
slightest influence in shaping his conduct. Nor was his course
regarded by leading men of the South as favorable to their
interests. They admired his courage, they felt grateful to him
because he had always stood up in defence of their constitu
tional rights whenever and wherever assailed ; but during the
war they regarded him as an enemy, and his course as inimical
to the success of their cause. The proof of this is ample. The
following is an extract from an article in the Chattanooga

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 395

Rebel, published at the time Mr. Vallandigham was banished
to the Southern Confederacy : —

"What shall we do with him? Send him back by all
means. It is our duty to our own honor to do so. It is charity
to him. And why so ? There are a hundred reasons. In the
first place, Vallandigham is not our friend, nor an alien enemy
of the North. He has never declared for us. On the contrary,
he is one of the most dangerous of all the men of the North,
for had his astute policy prevailed, we would to-day find our
selves in a more deplorable situation than it is possible to con
ceive. Vallandigham is a Unionist, an honest Unionist, an
able Unionist ; he is a gentleman of breeding, and a man of
heart. God knows we sympathise with him in his troubles. . .
But in deciding upon his case in our own mind, we see simply
the great champion of the Democracy of the Northwest, late
member of the Congress of the United States, and at present
candidate for Governor of Ohio."

The next day, another writer in the same paper says : —

" "We regard Mr. Vallandigham as a faithful citizen of the
United States. As an upright man he has spoken his senti
ments freely and frankly. They are very clear; and if founded
upon an erroneous estimate of the feelings which inspire the
heart of the South, they are frank and honest. We like them
for these good and rare qualities. We like him for having
uttered them. But still in a public and political point of view,
he is our enemy, and as such we are bound to treat him/'

To the same effect is the following extract from the Mobile
Register: —

"There is only one party in the North who want this
Union restored, but they have no more power — legislative,
executive, or judicial — than the paper we write on. It is true
they make a show of union and strength, but they have no
voice of authority. We know that the Vallandigham school
wants the Union restored, for he told us so when here in exile,
partaking of such hospitality as we extended to a real enemy

396 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to our struggle for separation, banished to our soil by another
enemy who is practically more our friend than he. And if
Vallandigham should, by accident or other cause, become
Governor of Ohio, we hope Lincoln will keep his nerves to the
proper tension, and not allow him to enter the confines of the
State. His administration would do more to restore the
old Union than any other power in Ohio could do, and there
fore we pray that he may be defeated. Should a strong Union
party spring up in Ohio, the third State in the North in politi-
tical importance, it might find a faint response in some South
ern States, and give us trouble. But as long as the Republi
cans hold power, they will think of conquest and dominion
only ; and we, on the other hand, will come up in solid column
for freedom and independence, which we will be certain to
achieve, with such assistance as we may now (after the refusal
of the Washington Cabinet to confer) confidently expect, before
the Democrats of the North get in power again, and come
whispering in our ears, ' Union, reconstruction, constitution,
concession, and guarantees.' Away with all such stuff! We
want separation. Give us rather men like Thaddeus Stevens
and Charles Sumner. They curse the old Union and despise it,
and so do we. And we now promise these gentlemen that, as
they hate the Union and the ' accursed constitution/ let them
keep down Vallandigham and his party in the North; then
they shall never be troubled by us with such whining about
the Constitution and Union as they are sending up."

That 'Mr. Vallandigham was honest and sincere in his
course does not admit of a doubt: his speeches and letters
show it. I

The following letter to his brother James exhibits not only
his courage and fortitude, but also his honesty and sincerity.
None but a man who sincerely believed he was right would be
able to stand the fiery ordeal he here describes : —

"WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1862.
" My Dear Brother : — Yours I received yesterday, and am
much obliged to you for it. I am indeed ' fighting the beasts
at Ephesus/ My courage never flinches, nor does my faith

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 397

ever waver ; but it is a fearful odds to contend against. With
but a little band to rally round me, without an organ through
which to i|ach the public, with a hostile and mendacious or
silenced press, with a reporters' gallery full of the most malig
nant slanderers and not a friend in it, with an embittered
majority in the House, and the spectators' galleries full of con
tractors and other parasites of the Administration ; with nothing
to hope for except in the future, every day becoming more and
more distant, . . . the struggle to ' prop a falling State ? is
indeed enough to appal the stoutest. Faith in the right, in
truth, in God, these alone sustain me. If I live through it,
the present generation will do me justice. If I perish, but my
name survive in the history of these times, other ages, and it
may be other countries, will do it. My triumph over Hickman,
infamous as his assault was, yet was so signal, carrying for the
first time the House and the galleries, that I feel very greatly
gratified. The debate, as it occurred and is in the Globe, speaks
for itself. Nearly all the Democrats of the House called to
see me that evening at my lodgings to congratulate me.
But all my trials and persecutions are severe. Other men in
politics have been as much abused, but they always had the
support of a powerful party and press. But I KNOW that it
will all come right by-and-bye."

If Mr. Yallandigham had believed that the Union could
be restored and maintained by war, and by that alone, he would
have sustained with all his might those who were waging it.
This he asserts repeatedly in his speeches and in his letters.
He avers it in the strongest terms in a letter to Josiah Perham,
Esq., of Boston. Mr. Perham had written him a very kind
letter, and with it had sent him a medal, which he says " is the
same as presented by me to the officers and soldiers of the 6th
Massachusetts Regiment ... on Boston Common, in front of
the Mansion House, in which John Hancock lived, August 2,
1861, in the presence of thirty thousand people." Mr. Yal
landigham thus replies to the letter : —

398 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"DAYTON, OHIO, August 29, 1861.
"Josiah Perham, Esq.j Boston, Mass.

" My dear Sir:' — I accept the medal which you have kindly
enclosed to me, and the more pleasurably because of the gen
erous sentiments of the letter along with which it is trans
mitted. You say — and you will pardon me for quoting it —
that ' my views as frankly stated by me on the floor of the
House, and before the people, do not agree with the united
public sentiment of the North in relation to our glorious Union ;
yet may you not hope that a change may take place in my
views, and that before the meeting of Congress in December
next, I will be found to have joined the great party which ad
vocates "Liberty and Union, now and forever!" And you
add that ' the frankness and distinguished ability with which
I advocate the cause I favor, have given me a national reputa
tion which now becomes historic.'

" The compliment, my dear Sir, which you bestow upon
me, is not so much in these last words, flattering as they are,
as in the wish you express in the sentence before them ; and
this just in proportion as honesty is a rarer and nobler heritage
than genius or talent, however great. But I assure you that
I do already belong, as I ever have belonged, to the party
which advocates Liberty and Union now and forever. Pardon
me, therefore, if I suggest that had Massachusetts but followed
always in the footsteps and re-echoed continually the voice of
that great man, her Senator, who first uttered these words, dear
still to every true American heart, both Liberty and Union
might yet have been preserved.

" You do not mistake me ; and as God is my judge, I aver
it, that, if I were satisfied that through civil war alone this
Union and our liberties could be secured, and that by civil war
they could be restored and made sure, I would unite straight
way with that party which by the baptism of blood should seek
to establish and to maintain them. But I have not so read
history, nor studied in the great book of human nature; and
it is because of my deep conviction — a conviction deep as
earth and as sincere as the blue sky above it — that this civil
war must end and will end in the utter and final subversion
of both, that I am constrained with great earnestness, but yet
with becoming discretion, to labor for a speedy and honorable

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 399

"*'•' • l ' •

peace which shall leave to us the cheering hope, at least, of an
ultimate and not distant restoration of THE OLD UNION of
these States, and of < one flag, one country, one constitution,
one destiny/ In this prayer I unite with you with a heart full
of sorrow, but not yet altogether without hope.

" Again I thank you ; and I accept your letter as a happy
omen of the future. That in the midst of great public excite
ment, and when threats of imprisonment or assassination are
every hour uttered against men who refuse to bow before the
storm, there are those yet in the old Bay State who, true to
her ancient great name and to the principles of her Kevolu-
tionary record, have the calmness to observe, the liberality to
appreciate, and the courage to acknowledge public virtue in
one whose opinions and course of conduct are so exactly the
opposite of their own, gives me renewed confidence in the early
restoration of peace, and with it I would fain hope, sooner or
later, of that old Union which our fathers made in order to
establish justice and to secure domestic tranquillity, the common
defence, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty forever.
" I am very respectfully,

" CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM."

Mr. Vallandigham opposed the war for various reasons.
He believed the war to be unconstitutional. He believed it to
be unnecessary ; he believed just as tens of thousands believe
to this day, that by a judicious and conciliatory course on the
part of Mr. Lincoln and his advisers, the war might be averted
and the Union saved. He looked upon war as a terrible evil,
and never to be entered upon till all other means of redressing
grievances had failed. Especially did he look with horror on
a civil war. And a war between the North and the South was
to him peculiarly distressing, for his family were divided —
many of those dear to him belonging to opposing armies. The
sons of one brother followed the standard of General Lee in
old Virginia ; the sons of another brother, and also the sons
of a beloved sister, were in the Federal army. On the hills

400 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

around Vicksburg two of kindred blood offered up their lives
beneath the folds of the Stars and Stripes, while at Port Royal
and at Cold Harbor blood as dear to him was poured out, and
two gallant lives closed forever, fighting in behalf of the South
and the principle of State rights. He realised strongly, he
felt intensely, that it was indeed a terrible wrar.

His principal objection to the war, however, was that by it
the Union could never be restored — the happy, prosperous,
glorious Union of the fathers. By concession, by compromise,
he believed that the Union could be re-established, but never
by war. Whether he was correct in his views or not, time alone
can determine. The indications at present — December, 1871 —
afford painful ground to believe that his apprehensions as to
the result were well founded. A Union " whereof one section
is pinned to the residue by bayonets " — maintained by suspen
sion of Habeas Corpus, and martial law — a Union in which
the ignorant, vicious, and degraded govern, and the intelligent,
virtuous, and refined are disfranchised and excluded from office —
is not the Union established by the sages and patriots of the
Revolution. When Mr. Vallandigham found that the war
would go on, that all attempts to arrest it were vain and useless,
he demanded that it should be carried on in a legal and con
stitutional manner, and confined his opposition principally to
abuses of power on the part of the Administration. Such
gross abuses had never been practised in this country, or in
any other professing to be free. The most sacred and valuable
rights guaranteed by the Constitution were in thousands of in
stances trampled upon, and acts of oppression and wrong of
the most grievous character continually committed. For his
denunciation of these, just as much as for his opposition to the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 401

war, was he assailed and slandered, and charges of disloyalty
alleged against him. And yet in all this he was influenced
by the purest patriotism and the sincerest love of the Union.
He believed that the very first infringements of the rights and
liberties of the people ought to be resisted. If quietly ac
quiesced in, even in time of war, they would form precedents
for the future; and that following such precedents, some
future President, anxious to prolong his own power or to keep
in power the party to which he belonged, might in time of
peace, under one pretext or another, suspend the writ of Ha
beas Corpus, or proclaim martial law, or interfere with freedom
of speech or of the press, and thus wrest from the people their
dearest rights, and inflict upon them most grievous wrongs ;
and that ultimately a despotism might be permanently estab
lished on the ruins of our free institutions.

These were the motives by which he was influenced, and
their purity and correctness he was willing to commit to the
decision of the " Great Hereafter," and calmly await the verdict
of posterity.

26

CHAPTER XVII.

EVENTS FROM '1865 TO 1870.

EARLY in 1865 Mr. Vallandigham, earnest and true in his
desire to restore peace to the country distracted with civil war,
made another effort in that direction. In 1863, during the
time that Horace Greeley was in Canada upon an errand of like
nature, he and Mr. Vallandigham had a short correspondence ;
and whilst their views widely differed as to the plans of adjust
ment of difficulties between the North and the South, Mr.
Greeley had gained the respect of Mr. V. by the evident sin
cerity and humanity displayed in the correspondence. There
had been rumors from Washington of efforts about to be made
to stop the effusion of blood, and Mr. Greeley had been there,
it was reported, in conference with the Administration upon
this important subject. Accordingly Mr. Vallandigham
addressed the following letter to Mr. Greeley : —

" DAYTON, OHIO, January 23, 1865.
*"Hon. Horace Greeley, Washmgiony D. C.

"My Dear Sir: — In consideration of our former correspon
dence, and that you have twice since urged negotiation for
peace in our unhappy country, I intended just after the Presi
dential election, when no partisan motives could stand in the
way, to address you on the subject; but the tone of the Presi
dent's message seemed so belligerent and so adverse to anything
like peaceful efforts, that I gave up my purpose. For some
.weeks past I have with painful anxiety watched the renewal

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 403

of movements in that direction. I fear that little at present
may result from them ; but what is being done is at least an
important point gained (I assume of course that they are in
good faith), and a good omen for the future. To me, who for
so long have been denounced and persecuted solely for insisting
upon a resort to negotiation and peaceful measures in this
great controversy, they are especially grateful. Sooner or later
it must come to this. Two years ago it would have been much
better for the country had we succeeded in our efforts then;
but Seward and Weed, as you well know, upon the one side,
and the ' Albany Regency/ with Belmont, &c., on the other, as
/ well know, defeated the humane and wise purpose. The two
years are gone — and great God, what a record! — but the sibyl
returns ; and if possible, let us buy this time."

Mr. Vallandigham then enlarged upon the military power
of the South, which still appeared formidable, and the great
danger of foreign intervention with its attendant evils, and
made several historical references in illustration of his views.
In conclusion, he said : —

" I could fill many pages with details ; for to me whose great
study is and ever has been history, it is all before my eyes as if
a reality. Can anything be done to avert it, or without it, the
protraction of a most bloody and fruitless war for years longer?
Now is the time. And if anything is begun, no effort must be
spared to bring it to a successful conclusion ; since, as Robert
son in his Charles the Fifth remarks, unsuccessful negotiations
only exasperate the parties whom they were intended to recon
cile. But no negotiation will or can begin except on blank
paper. My sole purpose in addressing you now, is to say that,
while I never have and never will combine with any party in
the prosecution of this war, I am yet ready to lay aside all
personal griefs, all remembrance of personal wrongs, and unite
with any party or set of men in any honorable and patriotic
effort, through negotiation and peace, to restore, if possible, the
integrity of our common country, and avert the terrible ruin
which impends it, and now hastens on every hour. If at any
time I can thus be of any service in any capacity, I am ready
for the work whenever and however summoned. And if the

404 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

men who are striving to thwart the efforts for negotiation and
peace shall again succeed, it will become necessary ultimately —
when, I say not — to associate, temporarily at least, and without
any concealment or false pretence, all men, without reference to
past questions, or even other future policies, into a party or
alliance devoted to the great purpose of saving this country
from either the dire ruin of successful war in the course of
years, or of division and foreign intervention, protectorates or
alliances. I write confidentially, and shall be glad to hear from
you in like manner in return.

"Very truly, C. L. VALLANDIGHAM."

Six days after this letter was written, the conference between
President Lincoln and Secretary Seward upon the one hand,
and Hon. A. H. Stephens and Judge Campbell upon the other,
was held at City Point, near Petersburg, Virginia. The result
of that conference was such that it dispelled all hope of peace,
except through the bloody pathway of continued warfare.
This attempt at adjustment of difficulties between the sections
having thus utterly failed, the war was waged with unrelent
ing vigor ; and seeing the hopelessness of the task, Mr. Vallan-
digham made no further effort to secure a settlement of the
terrible controversy.

Early in April, however, the war was unexpectedly brought
to a close by the surrender of General Lee. As soon as this
was made known, there was great joy throughout the country.
The night after the news reached the city, Dayton was illumi
nated, cannons were fired, and bonfires blazed. As usual on
such occasions of public rejoicing, a portion of the community,
not satisfied with the natural excitement of the hour, resorted
to stimulants, and the saloons and groggeries were filled with
excited and intoxicated men. A crowd of worthless fellows
of the baser sort, full of malignity and bad whiskey, in the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 405

evening came down in front of Mr. Vallandigham's house,
where they groaned, hooted and yelled in the most frightful
manner, alarming the lady inmates greatly. At last stones
were thrown at the front windows^ and in an instant Mr. Val-
landigham appeared, pistol in hand, upon the porch. " I give
you," said he, " two minutes to leave here ; I fire this pistol in
the air once, in two minutes more I shall fire into the crowd."
As he spoke he fired upwards, and instantly the mob broke and
ran. This cowardly mob was denounced by every decent
Republican in the city, and the attempt to insult Mr. Vallan-
digham and his family was never repeated. During the cam
paign of 1863, several times whilst no one except the ladies of
the house were at home, similar insults were offered ; but after
Mr. Vallandigham's return, except on the occasion just men
tioned, no one dared to attempt the base outrage.

On the night of the 14th of April President Lincoln was
assassinated. The news of his death produced an unprece
dented state of feeling in the country, and carried sorrow and
mourning to many hearthstones where his name had been
almost execrated. Mr. ATallandigham was an avowed and open
enemy of Mr. Lincoln. He believed, and justly too, that he
had been by the President cruelly and outrageously wronged ;
but Mr. Lincoln's tragic and sudden death in an instant
obliterated, at least for the time, all recollections of personal
wrong and all feelings of personal resentment, and he imme
diately wrote these lines upon the sad event, which were pub
lished the next day in the Dayton Empire as an editorial : —

" Last night was a night of horrors in Washington. Pres
ident Lincoln perished by the hand of an assassin. At any
time this would have been monstrous — inexpressibly horrible.

4:06 LIFE "OF 'CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Just now it is the worst public calamity which could have
befallen the country. Great God ! have mercy upon us ! Thin
is the beginning of evils. The hearts and hopes of all men —
even of those who had opposed his policy earliest and strong
est — had begun to turn towards Abraham Lincoln for de
liverance at last. And not without reason ; for his course for
the last three months has been most liberal and conciliatory.
But he has fallen by the most horrible of all crimes ; and he
who at this moment does not join in the common thrill and
shudder which shocks the whole land, is no better than the

assassin."

About this time Mr. Vallandigham received an invitation
to address the Young Men's Democratic Association of Lan
caster, Pennsylvania. Not being able to appear in person and
deliver an address, he wrote a long and very able letter, which
was immediately published in many of the papers and widely
circulated. In that letter he did not attempt to recommend
any general policy to be adopted by the Democratic party —
the state of the country was too unsettled for that — but he
urged the importance of a maintenance of the organization,
adherence to its great leading principles, and the infusion of
new life and energy in order to be ready for vigorous and
effective action whenever the time for action should come.

On the 24th of August the State nominating convention
met in Columbus. It was a large convention, composed of
pure, patriotic, and intelligent men. Mr. Vallandigham was
elected temporary chairman, and in taking the chair embraced
the opportunity — the first that had offered — to return his
grateful acknowledgments to the Democracy of Ohio for the
nomination he had received at their hands two years before,
and for the warm and enthusiastic support they had given him
in those days of peculiar peril and trial.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 407

Very soon after the meeting of Congress in December
1865, it became apparent that a breach was not only imminent
but absolutely unavoidable between President Johnson and the
party which had elected him. As the session progressed the
controversy between the President and Congress became still
more bitter, until in January 1866, he declared in vehement,
impassioned language, upon the porch of the White House,
open war upon the Radical party. If Mr. Johnson, when he
broke off from his former supporters, had called to his assist
ance the foremost men of the Democratic party, had imme
diately remodeled his cabinet, and had suppressed his pre
judices against the peace party of the North as well as against
the rebels of the South, it would have preserved him from
much vexation of spirit, given him a strong hold upon the
people, and secured his complete triumph over his enemies.
But unfortunately he drew the nattering picture in his mind of
a man, and that man himself, becoming the foundation of a
great party, which, dependent upon him alone, and guided
entirely by his counsels, should sweep the land like a tornado,
and place him once more in the Presidential chair. And thus
in imagination he foresaw himself in the future as the rival in
greatness of Washington, the restorer of peace and harmony to
a divided people, and the second saviour of his country. He
therefore exhibited during the years 1865, 1866, and 1867 a
coldness towards the most prominent members of the Demo
cratic party, and a positive animosity towards Mr. Vallandig-
ham which he could not conceal. Yet at that time Mr. Val-
landigham, more than any one man, had controlling influence
over the masses of his party. Mr. Johnson was not governed
by unpatriotic feelings in his course, but controlled by old

408 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

prejudices, and lie underrated very much the importance of the
allies whose warm support he could easily have gained, and
greatly over-estimated his strength and ability to cope with his
powerful adversaries. Notwithstanding Mr. Vallandigham
soon learned that Mr. Johnson still cherished an ill-feeling
against him, he gave the President in his struggle with his
inveterate foes in Congress, his support, but not with the zeal
and earnestness he would otherwise have displayed. Mr. John
son, with all his faults of character, inordinate self-esteem ,
obstinacy, and unreasonable prejudice, while he did not exhibit
profound sagacity in his contest with Congress, developed a
firmness and moral courage which entitle him to the respect
of his countrymen. Yet the manner in which he endeavored
to enforce his policy, rather than that policy itself, was a mis
fortune to the people of his own section, and has had much to
do in delaying the reaction against the Eadical party.

In his refusal to assent to the Freedman's Bureau and the
Civil Eights bills, he arrayed against him in fierce opposition
the Eepublicans as a party ; yet many men of ability, of posi
tion and influence, who had been strong supporters of the war,
were enlisted under his banner. During the early part of the
winter of 1866, two clubs were organised in Washington city,
composed of such elements, with the purpose of sustaining the
President. One of these clubs, known as the National Union
Club, was founded by Hon. A. N. Eandall, of Wisconsin, the
Assistant Postmaster-General, and was composed principally of
Eepublicans dissatisfied with the action of the Eadical party
in Congress. The other, styled the National Union Johnson
Club, was composed largely of men of Democratic antecedents,
such as T. B. Florence of Pennsylvania, Charles Mason of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGKHAM. 409

Ohio, and Montgomery Blair of Washington. These two
associations soon consolidated under the name of the National
Union Club, and from this organization emanated the call for
the Philadelphia Convention of 1866. The call for this con
vention was addressed " to all electors in the thirty-six States
and nine Territories of the United States, and in the District
of Columbia, who, in a spirit of patriotism and love for the
Union, can rise above personal and sectional considerations, and
who desire to see a truly National Convention which shall rep
resent all the States and Territories of the Union," the purpose
being " to hold counsel together upon the state of the Union,
and to take measures to avert possible danger from the same."
Mr. Vallandigham was distrustful of this movement from the
start ; there were men connected with it whom he regarded with
suspicion, and he was apprehensive of a design to break up the
Democratic party ; nevertheless he accepted the appointment
of delegate to the Convention, and went there with but little
hope of seeing any good accomplished, but determined that any
effort to destroy the great Democratic organization should be
foiled.

The Convention met on the 14th day of August, in the
Wigwam, a large building erected specially for the meeting in
the city of Philadelphia. In numbers and the distinguished
character of its delegates the Convention was a success ; but it
was composed of the most discordant elements, and too many
of its members were professional office-seekers. Henry J.
Raymond, of the New York Times, whose support of the Pres
ident had been timid and wavering, under the circumstances
was allowed to exert too much influence in its deliberations, as
were others also whose treachery soon after to Mr. Johnson

410 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

showed plainly that they had never had any real sincerity in
the movement. These were the very men who immediately
upon the assembling of the Convention raised objections to the
entrance of Mr. Vallandigham, Hon. Fernando Wood, and
other prominent Democrats into that body. Mr. Vallandig
ham arrived in Philadelphia, and stopped at the Girard House,
the day before the Convention met. As soon as his presence
became known he was overrun with visitors. It was estimated
that during his short stay in the city eight thousand people
called to see him. His hand and arm became absolutely sore
and wearied out by continual hand-shaking. At last he was
forced to change his room, actually to hide away from visitors,
as he was becoming entirely exhausted. The objection to his
entering the Convention arose in the JSFew York delegation, and
was on account of his opposition to the civil war. The Ohio
delegation, as well as Mr. V. himself, were highly incensed at
this opposition to his admission to a seat, and there is no doubt
that a majority of the Convention were in favor of his joining
in the deliberations ; but as the question threatened to break up
. the meeting, or would at least produce an angry discussion,
he at length consented, although against his own convictions
of right and duty, to withdraw. When he sent the letter of
withdrawal, he predicted that the result of the Convention
would not affect to any extent the future politics of the country.
In this, subsequent events proved him correct. Hon. J. K.
Doolittle was selected permanent chairman, with a host of
prominent politicians as vice-presidents. Every State and
Territory was represented. Notwithstanding, however, the
Convention was composed of many most able and influential
gentlemen, and many of the most gallant and distinguished

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 411

soldiers of the Federal army participated in its delibera
tions, and the greatest enthusiasm existed during its sittings,
it scarcely produced a ripple in the political current of the
times. In fact it was an utter failure. On the second day of
the Convention Mr. Vallandigham sent in his letter of with
drawal. The rules of the Convention were then suspended in
order to allow it to be read. The letter is as follows : —

"GiKARD HOUSE, Philadelphia, Aug. 14th, 1866.
" To the Chairman of the National Union Convention : —

" Sir : — I have this day received from the National Union
Committee, through the Hon. "Win. S. Groesbeck, chairman
of the joint Ohio delegation to your Convention, a ticket of
admission as a delegate from that State. The Hon. George W.
McCook, chairman of the Democratic delegation from Ohio,
has also communicated to me the following resolution, this
morning adopted by that delegation :

" ' Resolved, unanimously, by the Ohio Democratic delegation,
That we recognise the right of Clement L. Vallandigham, a
duly elected delegate from the Third Congressional District of
Ohio, to hold a seat in that Convention ; that we should regard
his exclusion from such a seat as an unjust, an unreasonable
infringement of the rights of the Democracy of said district,
and are ready to stand by him in the assertion of his rights
and the rights of his constituents ; that we endorse cordially
the purity and patriotism of his motives, and his fitness every
way to sit in said Convention; yet, for the sake of harmony
and good feeling in the same, and in order to secure the great
ends for which it is called, we consent to his withdrawal from
this delegation, and from a seat in the Convention, if, in his
judgment, his duty to his constituents shall justify such with
drawal/

" Yielding my own deliberate convictions of duty and right
to the almost unanimous opinion and desire of friends whose
wisdom and soundness of judgment, and sincerity and purity
of motives, I may not question, to the end that there shall
be no pretext, even from any quarter, for any controverted
question or disturbing element in the Convention to mar its

412 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

harmony, or hinder in any way the results to the cause of the
Constitution, the Union, and public liberty which shall
follow from its deliberation and its action, I hereby withdraw
from the Ohio Democratic delegation, and decline taking
my seat in the Convention. I am profoundly conscious that
the sanctity and magnitude of the interests involved in the
present political canvass in the United States are too immense
not to demand a sacrifice of every personal consideration in
a struggle upon the issue of which depends, as I solemnly be
lieve, the present peace, and ultimately the existence of free
republican government on this continent.

"Trusting that your deliberations may be harmonious,
your proceedings full of the spirit of wisdom and patriotism,
and its results crowned with a glorious and a saving triumph
in the end to the great cause in which every sympathy of
my heart is enlisted, I am, very respectfully, &c.,

" C. L. YALLANDIGHAM."

The canvass of 1867 in the State of Ohio was exceedingly
animated. Mr. Vallandigham entered upon it with his accus
tomed energy and earnestness. He visited every section of
the State and addressed between seventy and eighty meetings ;
"and it is a remarkable fact," said a Democratic paper at that
time, " that wherever he spoke, the Democracy in those counties
made proportionally larger gains than in any other portions of
the State. Republicans came to hear him by thousands and
went away divested of their insane prejudice against him. The
opposition endeavored to make all the capital they could out
of his identification with the canvass, but it was all to no pur
pose." The Democracy triumphed. They elected a majority
in the Senate and House of Representatives, and thus secured
the election of a United States Senator, which was the great
aim and object of the contest. There was great rejoicing over
the result. Jubilee meetings were held in various parts of the
State. A very large one assembled at Mt. Yernoii on the 24th

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 413

day of October. Mr.Yallandigham was present, and delivered
an able and eloquent speech. A correspondent of the Cincin
nati Commercial, who was present and reported the speech, thus
writes of the meeting and of Mr. Vallandigham's effort : —"At
Mt. Yernon yesterday the crowd was immense — larger, I
think, than I saw at any meeting of the campaign recently
closed. ... As he [Mr. Vallandigham] passed through the
streets of the town from the railroad depot in an open carriage,
the people swarmed around him to feast their eyes upon him,
and if possible to shake hands with him. . . . He spoke with
more vim and spirit than I had ever heard from him, and the
repeated plaudits of his audience told with what effect he was
addressing their Democratic hearts." The following are ex
tracts from the speech : —

"First, men of Knox, I give fervent thanks to almighty
God for the blessings of this day. Next, to you, my friends, I
make hearty acknowledgment of the earnest, devoted, pas
sionate enthusiasm of this reception. There is no speech nor
language, dead or living, strong enough or copious enough to
express the emotions of my heart at this moment.

* Could I embody and unbosom now
That which is most within me — could I wreak
My thoughts upon, expression, and thus throw
Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak,
All that I would have sought, and all I seek,
Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe, into ONE word,
And that word were lightning, I would speak.'

"But pardon me, men of Knox, if, subduing my own
swelling but voiceless thoughts and emotions, I beg that yours,
too, may be hushed for a moment, while calmly and through
historic narrative I call your memories back to the events which
to-day we commemorate. And I am sure furthermore, my
friends, that you will extenuate at least the seeming, not real,
egotism which demands continued reference to myself as a
principal actor in the scene.

414 LIFE OF CLEMENT LJ VALLANDIGHAM.

"Four years and six months ago I stood upon this very
spot to address thousands of my fellow- citizens, assembled
openly and publicly, under the law and according to the Con
stitution, to consult for the common good, to instruct their
representatives, and to petition for redress of grievances. I
myself, too, had been proclaimed a candidate for nomination to
the office of Governor of Ohio. Wherefore the people had a
double right to hear, and I a two-fold claim to be heard. Yet
my presence upon that day was almost constrained. Engage
ments required me elsewhere. But yielding to the urgent
entreaties of your messenger specially deputed for the purpose,
I came, not as orator of the day, but to fill a place in the pro
gramme of your proceedings, and I spoke, feebly indeed, yet
with words of honesty and truth. That other speech, making
an issue with the petty tyrants of the day, and responsive to
1 General Order No. 38/ and the other orders dated at Indian
apolis, and more atrocious still, forbidding all criticism of the
acts and policies of the Lincoln Administration, was delivered
the evening previous, upon consultation and after meditation,
from the steps and amid the columns of the Capitol at Colum
bus. But the spies and hirelings of him whose name I loathe
to utter [applause], stripped of their military uniform, and
dishonoring for a while the garb of honest citizens, had been
ordered to Mount Vernon ; and here leaning upon the platform
and tainting the air of heaven with their foul presence, they
did a work of infamy without example in military annals.
[Applause.] They did it in secresy, and they did it in safety.
Had they been known, and their mission understood, the
scattered members of their worthless carcasses [applause], torn
and wrenched and tossed by the arms and hands of ten
thousand infuriate freemen, would have strewed the ground, a
prey to lean dogs and hungry vultures, 'gorging and growling
over carcass and limb ' [applause], if vulture and clog could
consent to crunch and mumble and feed upon such flesh as
theirs. [Applause]."

After giving at considerable length an account of his illegal
arrest, iniquitous trial, and unjust banishment, he continues : —

" And to-day, men of Knox, I am again in your midst, a
freeman, to speak to and for freemen as brave as God ever
made among the children of men. [Great applause.]

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 415

" And now, my friends, allow me to recur to the scenes
upon this spot four years and a-half ago. "We were then in
the midst of a civil war the most gigantic in numbers, in ma
terial, in effort ; the grandest in proportions, the bloodiest and
most destructive and desolating, and the most penetrating and
far-reaching in its results and consequences, immediate and
remote, ever waged — a civil war between thirty millions of
people, a compound race, full of intellect, of courage, of will
unconquerable, set on fire by passion, and the most belligerent
and inexorable on the globe. The earth trembled under the
tread of their armies ; the heavens reverberated the shock of
their battles; almost an entire continent was the theatre of the
conflict, and for four years it raged with the fury of the hur
ricane.

" We were then, also, in the midst of a civil revolution, the
most extraordinary ever recorded in the history of free gov
ernments — a revolution before which the Constitution was
overthrown, the Union dissolved, and liberty crushed out be
neath a military and civil despotism the most searching, the
most complete, the most appalling ever established in a repub
lic ; a despotism combining the madness and license of the
mob with the system and discipline of the military — a des
potism to which fear in tyrants, ambition in generals, hate in
churchmen, and madness in all, gave a cruelty, a desperation, a
venom and a fury which smote and consumed and devoured as
it walked in darkness or wasted at noonday. Freedom of
speech, of the press, of public assemblages, and of the ballot,
had all perished in every Border State South; and the
'Butcher of Fredericksburg/ writhing and infuriate under
defeat, had just been deputed to extinguish the last lingering
spark of liberty in the Northwest. Once before, indeed, she
had been assailed in the United States, and for a similar pur
pose — to suppress and crush out the opposition of the Dem
ocratic party under Jefferson to the French war of '98, stirred
up by the Federal party under the elder Adams ; and my dis
tinguished friend here, Gen. Geo. W. Morgan, statesman in
peace, hero in war, chivalric gentleman at all times, bears in
his veins the blood of a martyr to freedom of the press five-
and-twenty years before I was born. But the re-action came ;
the Democratic party triumphed, and the Constitution was
' saved at the last gasp/ [Applause.]

416 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"Under circumstances suck as I have described, you, the
men of Knox and of other counties near you, assembled upon
this spot, sacred thenceforth and forever to liberty, to the num
ber of more then ten thousand. ;Twas May-day in the year
of grace 1863. The sun shone brightly; a thousand banners
streamed peacefully in the gentle breeze ; every bird was upon
the wing, and the forest rang vocal to their cheering melody.
The flowers, too, lent their sweetest perfumes, and the blue
sky above was

4 So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful,
That God alone was to be seen in heaven.'

"But while all nature thus gave signs of good-will through
out her realm, and God commanded peace through all His
works, far other was the scene which man had ordained for the
passions of his heart and the labors of his hands. Mars drove
heavily and headlong his fiery chariot, while Terror, with gor-
gon head, turned Religion and Pity and Mercy into stone.
Your assembling, men of Knox, was an act of courage unsur
passed in history. Not Grecian, nor Roman, nor Swiss, nor
English heroism ever excelled it. The days of the Tells, and
the StaufFachers, and the Winkelrieds of history, and the Biccler-
manns and Donnerhiigels of fiction ; of Bruce, of ITampden,
of Sidney, and of Russell, had returned in America ; and proudly,
bravely, boldly we all met the crisis. You demanded that 1
should speak in your name, and I obeyed, hurling defiance at
tyrants and usurpers and defilers of the holy temple of liberty
wheresoever found. Standing here upon this spot, and under
the same flag which floats now from the platform, I declared
the war ' cruel and unnecessary;7 and it was. [Cries of "That's
so."] So had said Abraham Lincoln : ( not waged for the pre
servation of the Union ; ' and it was not; ( but for the purpose
of crushing out liberty and establishing a despotism ; 9 Congress
has so enacted, and who to-day doubts it ? 'A war for the free
dom of the blacks / so it was, and this is now the boast of the.
leaders of the Republican party : ' a war for the enslavement
of the whites ; ' and to-day the wailing cry of six millions of
white men, disfranchised, burdened, oppressed, bruised, and
crushed under the heel of a military despotism, established,
not under the Constitution, but by warrant of the right of con-
guest, attests the prescient truth of the declaration. ' Order 38

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAND1GHAM. 417

a usurpation of power ; ' and such it was, soon after trampled
under foot, despised and spit upon by thirty thousand freemen
assembled in Ohio's capital. ' That I was at all times and
upon all occasions resolved to do what I could to defeat the
attempts which were being made to build up a monarchy upon
the ruins of free government.' Was ever prophecy so fulfilled?
And here, to-day, in presence of twenty thousand freemen of
Ohio, on bended knee, and upon this the self-same spot, I
thank my God that I have been enabled to keep the resolution;
and now in His presence, and before you my witnesses, I
renew the holy vow, and swear by the great white throne and
Him who sitteth thereon, that, slavery having perished, the
Union of our fathers, and the Constitution of our fathers, and
the liberties secured by them, shall be preserved to us and our
children's children forever ! [Applause.]

" Far other scene, men of Knox, is witnessed here now. In
the calm of an autumnal day, with a mellow October sun shin
ing down cheerily upon us, not ten, but twenty thousand free
men greet the return of the exile and bid him good cheer !
[Great applause.] There is no war in the land to-day, no
military despots here, no arbitrary arrests, no military trials,
no 'orders' of whatsoever number, no provost-marshal, no
judge-advocate, no conscriptions, no bastiles, no mobs, no
assassinations, no exile, 110 scaffolds. [Applause.] There are
no spies here to-day to pollute this sacred presence. In peace,
in ease of mind, in the ' truce of God,' in security, with joy
welling from every heart, beaming from every eye and speaking
from every tongue, in shouts such as only freemen can send up,
till the hollow concave above us rings again, we are assembled
to celebrate the grandest political triumph ever achieved.
[Applause.]

"And now, my friends, without further exultation, allow
me, in humbler and more measured tread, to recur to the-
lessons which this extraordinary victory teaches us. And, first
of all, I reckon faith in God and the right, and along with
these the patience which, steadfastly and without doubt or
question, abides the leisure of Him who doeth all things well.
There is something more than sublime in that faith whichr
walking not by sight, sees yet the future as the present,, and
catches the first faint echoing of the footsteps of the Hereafter
as he treads slowly but surely along the corridors of Time.

217

418 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANBIGHAM.

Such has been the faith of the heroes and the martyrs, the
actors and the sufferers of every age and clime

" Another lesson of this great victory, men of Knox, is not
the duty merely, but the profitableness of a stern, inflexible
adherence to principle. The Democracy of Ohio, turning a
deaf ear to the glozing, whispering, ghastly delusion and snare
of i policy/ so-called and miscalled, which would fain bargain,
and cheat, and steal into office and power only to raven like
the wolf and divide the spoil, have fought and won this fight
upon the ancient, the straightest, sternest, ruggedest issues and
doctrines of the party. They yielded not an inch ; and through
out the entire canvass, as for years past, they stood by and
upheld the men who had been singled out as the special objects
of Radical odium and reproach. They loved and honored,
above all, those whom the Republican party hated and affected
to despise. They murmured not against their leaders, though
they had neither manna from heaven nor water from the rock.
And to-day they possess the heritage of their enemies. Cour
age, men of Knox, courage ! Stand by principle, and by the
men who represent principle, and not the mere policy and spoils
of political warfare.

" Next, and with peculiar pleasure, let me bestow the meed
of praise upon the gallant volunteers of Ohio, two-thirds of
whom united with the Democratic party in the recent conflict.
Soldiers, you did a work of courage high above that which on
the battle-field gave you a name to live in American history.
In the beginning you rallied to the old flag of your country,
asking no questions of pay or pensions or bounty, assured that
this Union was imperiled and the Federal authority mocked
by rebellion. The Constitution, the Union, the flag : these
were the battle-cries which called a whole people to arms. OnCG
enlisted, in a little while the illusion vanished. But the strong
arm of military discipline held you. Then, cut off from all
intercourse and communication with home, except such only as
was permitted to one party alone, you were taught to regard
your fathers, your mothers, your brothers, your sisters, all who
adhered to the Democratic party, as enemies and traitors to their
country. I who speak to you here to-day, was above all men
so reviled. But the war ended. You made your last march,
your last bivouac; saw the last embers of your camp-fires,
heard the last gun fired and the last drum beat, and listened

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 419

at length with eyes full of tears and hearts full of joy to the
swelling notes of the final ' recall ' which spoke to you of home
and hearth-stone and mother ! You are here, God be praised,
though many a comrade's bones and dust repose in a far distant
soil. You are here, your own masters, to judge and act and
vote as you will. The false practices of those who imposed
upon or tyrannised over you, stand revealed to-day — their real
acts in the past, their real designs for the future. Your eyes
are opened. The accumulated frauds and falsehoods of six
years have perished before your scrutinising vision. And now
to you, { Boys in Blue/ in this presence, and before these my
witnesses, let me say that all you ever heard and all you ever
read charging me with hostility in thought or word or deed,
at any time or in any place or in any station public or pri
vate, to you personally or as soldiers, is totally and absolutely
false. We differed as to the war. You had a right to your
opinions ; I to mine. These are the same now as in and from
the beginning. As to yours, answer for yourselves in the light
of the history of the past six years. But now, and here, upon
this spot, bring forward any responsible endorser of the false
hoods I have denounced, any man of note, prince or peer, from
highland or lowland, from far or near, and I will tell him to
his teeth,

" Lord Angus, thou hast lied."

" Finally, men of Knox, we have won a great and magni
ficent victory. What shall we do with it ? Upon this question,
so comprehensive, so significant, so momentous, depends not
merely whether the Democratic party shall go forward to future
and further triumphs, but whether it shall live. If it shall be
true to principle, true to the men who represent principle, full
of courage, hearkening to np timid counsel, yet securing har
mony and good-will in its ranks ; if firmly and with inexor
able purpose it shall do the work appointed for it, and with all
this, shall combine wisdom and honesty and moderation and
justice in all its acts ; above all, if in every measure and
utterance outside the limits of mere party organization, it shall
consult the good of the country, and not of party, or, baser still,
the men of the party, it will rule again in the affairs of the
State Government and the Federal Government for a hundred
years to come. But if, taking counsel of the timid, the venal,
the corrupt, it shall shrink from an absolute and courageous

420 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

assertion of its principles, and enforcement of its policies and
vindication of its public men; if it shall halt one jot or tittle
in its support of the issues upon which it won the fight ; if it
shall permit dissension and discord as to candidates or upon
policies and measures of legislation ; especially if, forgetting
that it is a Democracy, it shall have regard rather to the
interest of capital than of labor, of the rich than the poor, the
few than the many; and sluu. consider section, or party, or
self, rather than the country and the whole country — in the day
that it shall eat of such fruit it shall surely die, and upon its
gravestone, for monument it will have none, shall be inscribed
the lamentation of Carthage over her greatest son, 'You
knew how to conquer, but not how to use the victory.7 [Great
cheering.]"

Mr. McCulloch, the very able correspondent of the Cincin
nati Commercial, who reported this speech, wrote on the same
day the following letter from Mount Vernon, in which he gives
some interesting gossip in relation to the contest for United
States Senator which followed the election of 1867.

" MOUNT VERNON, OHIO, October 25.

" While the Democratic party of Ohio was in a minority
that seemed hopeless, and would have remained so but for the
indiscreet zeal of its opponents, its leaders were a band of
brothers, united by a tie of fraternal affection equaled only by
that recorded of David and Jonathan, Castor and Pollux,
Damon and Pythias, or other loving ones whose mutual admi
rations are the subjects of sacred and profane .histories. A
year ago, if Vallandigham had been asked who was the greatest
of living statesmen, he would have unhesitatingly responded
' George H. Pendleton ; ' to the same inquiry Mr. Pendleton
would have responded, ( Clement L. Vallandigham.' . . .

" There are some features of this contest worthy of especial
note, and it is for the purpose of mentioning a few of them
that this letter is written. First, the subterranean bitterness
with which it is being conducted ought to be noticed, because
it is in such contrast with the spirit of brotherly love that
appears on the surface. Vallandigham's friends are swearing

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 421

blue vengeance upon all who refuse to support him, or who
assert that to elect him would injure the prospects of the Dem
ocratic party in the future ; and Val. himself answers all such
objections by appeals to history and philosophy, and the pro
verbial zeal of new converts. When the fear is expressed that
his election would drive back to the Republican ranks all the
accessions made to the Democracy in the late elections, he replies
that those who voted the Democratic ticket for the first time
this fall are more ultra Democratic to-day than those who
have been voting it all their lives. Another remarkable
feature of the fight is the difference of opinion between the
Democratic people and the Democratic politicians on the sub
ject of Vallandigham. Of those who voted the Democratic
ticket on the 8th of October, a very large majority would un
questionably vote Vallandigham into the Senate if the matter
were submitted to them for decision, and yet in many places
where he is strongest with the people he is weakest with the
politicians. It is difficult to account for this inconsistency in a
party professing so much faith in the vox populi. My own
impression is that the true solution of the problem is to be
found in the jealousy of Vallandigham's popularity which
pervades the breasts of many would-be leaders of the Democ
racy, rather than in any well-meant efforts to secure or preserve
the ascendancy of the party by keeping such an ' extreme man ?
in the background. The latter is a very convenient pretext,
and its diligent application in the case of Vallandigham has
many parallels in the political history of this and other
countries. It is not the first time that mediocre talents have
yelped themselves into official station by an unmeaning outcry
against men who differ from their possessor principally in
having more brains. . . .

" I shall not attempt to account for Mr. Vallandigham's
popularity among the Democratic masses ; least of all shall I
attribute it to the same cause to which I attribute his unpop
ularity among the Democratic politicians. I have attended
two * jollification' meetings recently, and have seen at each such
demonstrations in the direction of hero-worship as are seldom
exhibited in this country. . . .

" The speech occupied a little over an hour in its delivery,
and I thought that at its conclusion the assembled Democrats
would quietly disperse to. their respective homes. But not so.

422 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

The ovation, instead of having ended, had just commenced,
and for about an hour there was such a scene of wild con
fusion, produced by attempts to congratulate the speaker, as si
seldom witnessed by any one, and I hope will never again
be witnessed by me except from a respectful distance. They
crowded around his carriage, they choked every avenue of
travel about him, and conducted themselves in a general way
like so many lunatics, . . .

" Meantime, while the people are enthused for Val., the poli
ticians are calmly surveying the scene and calculating the
results. As far as I can learn, a majority of the Democratic
members elect to the Legislature have expressed themselves in
favor of Judge Thurman. There is a possibility that Mr. Pcn-
dleton may come in as a compromise candidate, or rather there
was such a possibility before the Enquirer threw cold water on
it by nominating its favorite for the Presidency. The greater
does not include the less in politics, and if Mr. Pendleton is a
candidate for President he can't be made Senator — that's
certain. The quarrel is a little mixed as it stands, and prom
ises to wax into extreme liveliness before it terminates. Val.'s
strongest point is that the Republican party made the issue on
him, and that the election of a Democratic Legislature meant
his election as Senator."

The contest for Senator between Mr. Yallandigham and
Judge Thurman at the commencement of the year 1868, was
carried on by their respective partisans with great earnestness
and bitterness. Nearly all the Democratic politicians of the
State were enlisted in it, and went to Columbus to join in the
conflict. The principal objections urged against him were his
radical Democracy, his alleged rashness, and the prominent
part he took in opposition to the wTar. When the caucus met,
Judge Thurman received the nomination by a decided major
ity. It is useless to conceal the fact that Mr. Vallandigham
was deeply chagrined at this result. The Senatorship had
been his life-long aspiration, and he felt keenly at the time,
and deeply till the day of his death, the disappointment of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 423

his defeat. It was the only defeat he ever suffered (and he
was not a fortunate politician) that really grieved him, or
caused him more than momentary mortification or depression.
He did not waste his breath or degrade his character by
unmanly repining, but when he returned home from Colum
bus upon this occasion, he appeared for days as if a dark
shadow had fallen upon his soul.

On the 4th of July, 1868, the Democratic Convention to
nominate candidates for President and Vice-President of the
United States, met in the city of New York. Mr. Vallandig-
ham, although not a delegate, went on to New York and took
up lodgings in a quiet, retired portion of the city a few days
before the Convention. He did not come on to work for any
candidate, at least not at first ; for on account of a coldness
which had unfortunately arisen between Mr. Pendleton and
himself, growing out of the Senatorial contest, he would not
give that gentleman his active support ; and yet on account of
old memories of friendship, and because Mr. Pendleton was the
favorite of the Ohio Democracy, he would do nothing against
him. He was persuaded, however, that the only hope of
assured success to the Democracy was the nomination of Chief-
Justice Chase. Nor did he regard the support of Chase as
inconsistent ; for that gentleman had always been a Democrat
in principle, and an extreme State rights man, differing from
the old orthodox Democracy only upon those questions which
had been finally settled by wager of battle. In the course of
events in the Convention it soon became necessary to strengthen
the Ohio delegation, and Mr. "Vallandigham for this purpose
was substituted for another gentleman. He immediately
dropped all recollection of personal grievances, and steadfastly

424 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and earnestly supported Mr. Pendleton until his name was
withdrawn. The contest after this seemed to be between Gen.
Hancock and Mr. Hendricks. Mr. Pendleton had written a
letter favorable to the nomination of Mr. Seymour, to be used
if it should prove necessary to withdraw his own name ; and
Mr. Pendleton's friends were determined that Mr. Hendricks
should not be the nominee. They were influenced by two
reasons in their opposition to Mr. Hendricks : first, they accused
his friends of acting in bad faith towards Mr. Pendleton ; and
second, they considered that the nomination of the Indiana
Senator would destroy all chances for their favorite in 1872, it
not being likely that two "Western men living in States contigu
ous would be nominated successively by the Democrats. Mr.
Vallandigham still regarded the nomination of Mr. Chase with
favor, but necessarily he was governed to a considerable extent
in his course by a consideration of the future interests of Mr.
Pendleton and by the views of Mr. Pendletoii's friends ; he
had, however, no shadow of personal enmity to Mr. Hendricks.
The night of the 8th of July was one of feverish excitement
in New York amongst all who were interested in the result of
the Convention. Mr. Vallandigham scarcely slept during the
whole night ; and he was consulted by men from nearly every
State in the Union. Early in the evening it was decided to
withdraw Mr. Pendleton's name, but every one was in the dark
as to what would be the result of this movement. Towards
morning the knowing ones were confident that it would be
speedily followed by the nomination of Chief- Justice Chase;
owing, however, to circumstances which we have not space to
detail, the Ohio delegation presented the name of Horatio
Seymour, who on the next ballot — the 22d — received 317

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 425

votes, and was immediately after unanimously declared the
nominee of the Convention.

After the New York Convention Mr. Vallandigham
returned home, and for the time devoted himself exclusively
to the editorial management of the Dayton Ledger, in which
paper he had then a proprietary interest. The Congres
sional canvass was coming on in the Third. District, and it
was generally conceded that Gen. Schenck would again be the
standard-bearer of the Republican party. Two years previous
Gen. Schenck had beaten the Democratic nominee, Gen. Durbin
Ward, 1067 votes. The question among Democrats was,
" Whom shall we enter against Schenck?" Gen. Ward early
announced himself as a candidate, but not before assuring him
self that Mr. V. had no ambition in that direction. Many
leading Democrats of the District waited upon Mr. V. and
asked him to be a candidate, but to all he made but one reply :
he would not be a candidate. At that time there was a reason
able hope that the reaction had come that was to carry the
Democracy into power. To all of his friends Mr. Vallandig
ham said : " If we are successful this fall in the election of a
Democratic administration, I shall hope for something better
in politics than a seat in Congress; without a Democratic
administration I have no desire to become a member of that
body." In this determination he was fixed and unalterable,
though urged as few men have ever been to allow the use of his
name. With the understanding that Mr. V. would not be a
candidate, several other prominent Democrats entered the arena.
Among them were Hon. Christopher Hughes, of Butler; Stephen
Crane, Esq., of Butler; and Jonathan Kenny, Esq., of Mont
gomery. In the meantime Mr. Vallandigham, expressing the

426 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

kindest feelings for all the candidates, made no secret of his
preference for Mr. John A. McMahon. He seemed to think that
Mr. M., being a popular man in both Butler and Montgomery
Counties, and in fact throughout the District, would be the
most available candidate to cope with Schenck. He knew the
foeman and the nature of the struggle. Mr. McMahon op
posed the proposition to make him a candidate from the first,
despite the urgings of Mr. Vallandigham.

The nominating convention was held at Hamilton, Butler
County, on Tuesday, the 18th day of August. Up to the
morning of the convention the political status was precisely as
above indicated — Mr. McMahon stoutly protesting against his
proposed candidacy and Mr. Vallandigham insisting, with the
belief that if the nomination was made Mr. McM. would ac
cept. Before the assembling of the Convention it was made
known that Mr. McMahon had placed in the hands of Hon.
Geo. W. Houk a positive letter of declination, which he in
structed him to read to the Convention in case of the presenta
tion of his name. This fact was telegraphed to Mr. Vallandig
ham, then in Dayton. His response was that Houk must
be prevailed upon to withhold the letter. He sent a number
of telegrams to this effect to his friends, and finally, as a dernier
resort, telegraphed that if possible McMahon should be nom
inated over his letter and against his protestation. We
mention this fact in order to impress the point that Mr. V.
had no wish to be a candidate, but that he was firmly devoted
to Mr. McMahon. The charge of bad faith, afterward made
against him, was without ground and wholly unwarranted.

The Convention met at 10 o'clock at Opera Hall, and Hon.
Geo. W. Houk, of Montgomery, was made chairman. It

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 427

was apparent from the commencement that a strong feeling ex
isted in the Convention in favor of Vallandigham. Many
believed that he of all others was the man to meet and battle
Schenck, but the general understanding that he would not
be a candidate served to divide up the vote among the. other
candidates in such a way as to deprive any one man of a
majority. The struggle seemed to be between Gen. Ward and
Hon. Stephen Crane. The nominations made were as follows:
Durbin Ward, of "Warren; Christopher Hughes, of Butler;
Stephen Crane, of Butler, and Jonathan Kenny, of Mont
gomery. On the first ballot Ward received 28 J- votes;
Hughes 15 J; Crane 17, and Kenny 1; whole vote 62; neces
sary to a choice 32. The second ballot resulted, Ward 29 J;
Crane 18; Hughes llf, and Kenny 2. At this point the
Butler County delegation asked and obtained leave to with
draw for consultation. It should be here observed that Mr.
McMahon was placed in nomination ' after the first ballot,
but the President refused to entertain it in view of his
positive instructions. Upon the return of the Butler dele
gation, Peter Murphy withdrew the name of Mr. Hughes.
The name of Mr. Crane was withdrawn about this time,
and Mr. Samuel Dickey arose, and in a brief but stirring ad
dress placed in nomination C. L. Vallandigham. The sug
gestion was received with storms of applause, and for ten min
utes it was impossible to quell the enthusiasm which the
announcement evoked. Order being restored, a vote was had,
which resulted as follows: Vallandigham, 51 J; Ward, 10 J.
A scene ensued upon the heels of this announcement seldom if
ever witnessed in a similar body. Cheer after cheer went up,
hats were tossed into the air, old men swung their coats above

428 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

their heads, and for the time it seemed that the representative
Democracy of the Third District had gone mad with joy. It
was an ovation such as any man might well be proud of.

That night a committee which had been appointed to notify
Mr. Vallandigham of his nomination, waited upon him at his
home in Dayton. He received them cordially, and in a brief
speech accepted the nomination, as coming spontaneously from
his friends and political associates. He again reiterated his
feeling in reference to the nomination, and assured his friends
that he had not sought the honor.

It cannot be denied that at first there was considerable op
position in the party-ranks to the nomination of Mr. Vallan
digham. It came from the friends of defeated candidates and
those who believed that Mr. Vallandigham had already received
sufficient marks of confidence from the people of his district,
but in less than two weeks all differences were healed. Mr.
Vallandigham at once went to work with an energy and will
such as few men ever possessed, and gave his friends to under
stand that he appreciated the nature of the task before him.
Schenck immediately came into the district, backed by the money
and influence of Eastern capitalists who appreciated the need
of the continuance of the great " tariffite " in Congress, and
such a battle was fought as was never fought in the political
history of Ohio. It was a national struggle. Both men were
regarded as true representatives of party ; the district was at
that time rather closely divided, and the eyes of the whole
country were upon them. Never in Mr. Vallandigham's
career did he exhibit such political sagacity, untiring zeal, in
domitable will, and power for organising, controlling, and
marshalling political hosts. He seemed to be ubiquitous. The

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, 429

second week of the campaign found hundreds of men enlisted
under his banner who had in times past been his bitterest
enemies. Many who but a few months previous had fought
him, now stood in the front rank of his army. During the
campaign he spoke nearly every day. He went all over the
district, and everywhere gave personal supervision to the can
vass. When at home he worked every night in his office,
writing letters and making personal appeals. It is believed, and
in fact he so stated himself, that during that memorable cam
paign he did not average more than four hours7 sleep in twenty-
four. Schenck imported to the district the best talent and
most aggressive orators upon the Radical side. Vallandigham
fought almost single-handed and alone.

In the early part of the fight he received from Washington
that which promised at first to be a substantial aid. It was
an assurance from Hon. Montgomery Blair, at that time prom
inent in the councils of the Johnson Administration, that no
revenue appointments would be made for the Third District
which had not received his (Vallandigham's) recommendation.
Schenck was not long in finding this out, and by appealing to
Commissioner Rollins, managed to thwart the movement which
promised to give the Democracy the control of the large army
of revenue officials in the Third District. Mr. McCulloch, Sec
retary of the Treasury, could appoint the storekeepers under
the revenue law, but the power of assignment belonged to Mr.
Rollins, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Mr. McCulloch
made seventeen appointments at Mr. Vallandigham's request,
but General Schenck succeeded in persuading Mr. Rollins, who
was a Radical, to refuse to assign any of Mr. McCulloch's ap
pointments. The effect was that through Mr. Rollins' refusal

430 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

to assign, sixteen distilleries were kept idle in the Third District
during the whole campaign, causing a loss of revenue to the
Government estimated by the Collector at about $10,000 a day.

Mr. Vallandigham. was sanguine from the commencement.
His positiveness was infused into doubting friends, and many
votes were made to him through the exercise of this peculiar
trait of character. He honestly and sincerely believed up to
the night before the battle that his election was assured. On
the day of the election he went in person to the Soldier's
Home, near Dayton, where arrangements had been made by
the opposition to poll against him the votes of several hundred
non-residents, but by his presence and his clear enunciation of
the statute he thwarted the enemy and prevented the outrage.
For this act he was afterward severely censured by the par
tisan Radical press, but subsequent events proved the wisdom
and even policy of his course.

An immense amount of money was spent during the cam
paign by both parties. The number of votes cast was very
large, and warranted the suspicion that a good many of them
were illegal. The vote was as follows :

Vallandigham. Schenck.

BUTLER 5,333 ... 3,200

M »NTGOMERY '6,557 ••• 6,440

PREBLE 1,979 - 2,769

WARREN 1,949 - 3,884

15,818 16,293

— Schenck's majority, 475.

The night of the election, scores of telegrams were received
in the District from all parts of the country asking the
news ; several from "Washburne who that night was sitting

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 431

up with General Grant to learn the result of the elec
tions. The disappointment of Mr. Vallandigham's friends
was very great, even much more than his own, and it had a
most depressing effect amongst his own party all over the
State. Although beaten, the result showed that Mr. Vallan-
digham had been steadily gaining in popularity for years. The
addition of Warren County in 1860, with a Republican ma
jority of 2,000, to the old Third District, made it very strongly
Republican. But a comparison of the vote for years in the
old District first represented by Mr. Vallandigham shows how
steadily he was gaining control over the hearts of the people.
In 1854 he was beaten 2,562; in 1856, 19 (including illegal
votes) ; in 1858 he carried the old District by 188, in 1860 by
134, in 1862 by 700, and in 1868 by 1,452. At the Presi
dential election Grant carried the District by a very large
majority.

In January 1870 Mr. Vallandigham formed a partnership
with Hon. Daniel A. Haynes, who had been the Superior Judge
of Montgomery County. From this time he earnestly addressed
himself to his duties as a lawyer; and his practice, which had
long been greatly neglected, continually increased, so that at
the time of his death it was very large and lucrative. As a
jury lawyer he was probably excelled by few in the United
States in eloquence and general effectiveness, and it is un
fortunate that none of his speeches in the many important
cases he tried between the years 1865 and 1871 were ever re
ported, for in the judgment of able critics many of his efforts
at the bar were finer specimens of real eloquence than those in
Congress and on the hustings. He took very little part in
politics during the years 1869 and 1870. In the latter year

432 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Hon. L. D. Campbell, his former political rival and adversary,
was nominated for Congress by the Democrats of the District
against General Schenck, and Mr. Yallandigham gave Mr.
Campbell his cordial support. Finding a few days before the
election that in defiance of the decision of the Supreme Court
of the State an effort would be made by the Radical party to
poll the votes of the inmates of the " Soldier's Home " near
Dayton, he determined to see to it personally that this viola
tion of law should be thwarted. The effort was made, but
early in the morning Mr. Yallandigham arrived on the ground,
and by his boldness and firmness the attempt of Mr. Schenek's
friends t<j poll over six hundred illegal votes was entirely de
feated. ' This secured the election of Mr. Campbell. The de
cision by which the " Soldier's Home " vote had been declared
illegal was made in a case which Mr. Yallandigham argued be
fore the Supreme Court; and the judges of the Court, all of them
members of the Republican party, had unanimously concurred

in the decision.

•

At a jubilee meeting held in honor of his election, Mr.
Campbell referred in the following terms to Mr. Yallandig-
ham's conduct during this campaign : —

" I thank, from the bottom of my heart, those magnanimous
Democrats who came forward to the rescue, and helped carry
me through triumphantly in this campaign. [Applause ; and
cries of " Yes, yes, we'll always do it."] It would be impos
sible for me to single out and name the prominent individuals
of the Democratic party to whose individual action might be
attributed this success. There are many who had a sufficient
influence in their respective neighborhoods to have produced
my defeat if they had used that power. But there was one man
of prominence — one man known and recognised, not merely
by the Democracy of this district, but by the Democracy of the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 433

entire nation, as one of eminent ability, who had occupied high
positions in the party — whom you have often delighted to
honor [enthusiastic applause] — a single individual who, after
my nomination, might have accomplished my defeat by a nod,
by a wave of his hand, by the wink of his eye — a man who,
unlike those I have described, a man upon whom I had no
claim personally or politically, with a magnanimity unequalled
by anything that I now recollect of, came forward and labored
assiduously to enable me to triumph over those miserable and
pitiful efforts of my enemies. [Applause.]

" I say that I had no personal or political claims upon him,
and I am here to-night proudly to acknowledge to my neigh- .
bors and countrymen that in this contest he gave evidence of
a magnanimity that I could not have claimed for myself. That
man is C. L. Vallandigham [tremendous applause] ; and with
out going, my fellow-citizens, into a detail of what he has
done, let me refer to this one fact, that it is to his ability as a
lawyer, and to his untiring efforts, that the question as to the
constitutional right of the inmates of the ' Soldier's Home ' to
vote was brought before the Supreme Court, and there decided
in the negative."

Just before the jubilee meeting where Mr. Campbell de
livered this speech, a meeting of a similar character was held
at Dayton which Mr. Vallandigham addressed. In the course
of his remarks he took the occasion to give the colored voters,
of whom quite a number were present, judicious advice in
these words : —

" And now allow me a word to our newly made voters of
African descent. I have no apologies to make to-night for
anything in opposition to them which I may have said in
times past — nothing now to take back. My opinions upon
the question of negro suffrage and equality remain unchanged.,
[Loud cheers.] But you have in fact, at least, been made
citizens and voters, and I recognise the fact. Some of you
speak of me as an enemy of your race. This is not correct.
Individually I have been your friend. I have taken you

28

434 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM,"

by the hand when your now white Republican friends shunned
and cursed you. At my doors some of you have received
that charity, in years past, which was denied you at the hands
of your Abolition friends, so-called. [Cries, "That's so, we
know it.77] No colored man ever asked a personal favor of
me for years past and was denied ; and as well before you had
suffrage conferred upon you as now, I would have protected
you in court or against a mob quite as willingly and as ear
nestly as any other man. But my opinions as to the question
of conferring political rights upon you in this country were
honestly entertained and candidly and strongly expressed.
.Yet, if you shall prove yourselves worthy of these rights and
capable of exercising them as good citizens, I will then very
cheerf ully, and in a manlike manner, publicly confess myself
mistaken. Your future is in your own hands. But remember
that you do not hold the balance of power in this county, nor
in this district. [Loud cheers.] You cannot control things
by your votes; numbering several hundred voters here, you
are yet rather a source of weakness than of strength to the
Republican party ; and you owe nothing to that party except
the mere right to try the experiment of suffrage. They did
not confer it upon you for your sakes, but for their own as
partisans and demagogues. [Loud cheers.] They wanted
your votes to put themselves into office and keep themselves in
pOAver. Beyond this they care nothing for you. [Cries of
" That's so : you're right."] The mass of you were personal
slaves, or the descendants of slaves in the South before and
during the war. At the point of the bayonet they freed you,
only now to make you, if you submit, political slaves for their
own profit and advancement. And now, I, who owe you
nothing, and to whom you owe less than nothing politically,
warn you not to organise as a colored party. Beware of
threatening or attempting to make all of your own race act
and vote as a distinct body. If you do, then be assured that
sooner or later the white race will antagonise you as white
men ; and here we are as twenty to one. In a political struggle
we can overwhelm you. In a contest of arms — in a war
of races, if you provoke it — we can crush out and exterminate

C. Wherefore be wise in time. The Irish do not vote in a
y ; neither do the Germans, nor the Americans born ; and
be assured that a i Negro party' will bring forth a 'White

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 435

Man's' party; and not long after will come violence and
bloodshed. If you would prove yourselves worthy to be and
remain citizens, separate, divide, politically and otherwise, as
other citizens do. Identify yourselves with the community in
which you live. Refuse to be made the slaves and tools of
demagogues ; and when thus you shall have established your
fitness for citizenship, no one will ever attempt to deprive you
of its rights. Kemember that I, who speak these words, owe
you nothing, and you owe me nothing ; but right or wrong,
wisely or unwisely, you have been forced upon us as citizens,
and I counsel you now as such. You may hearken to me, or
not, just as it shall please you ; but be assured that the time
will come when you will say that I counseled you most wisely
and well. [Loud cheers.] "

The five years which we have just briefly reviewed were
the least exciting and eventful of Mr. Yallandigham's political
life. During these years he gave most of his time and attention
to the practice of his profession, to reading and study, and to
the society of his family and friends. Still, as will be seen, he
felt a deep interest and took an active part in political affairs,
was part of the time editor of the Dayton Ledger, partici
pated in the deliberations of the National Convention of 1868,
was that year a candidate for Congress, and in the Presidential
and Congressional canvass that followed, as well as in the State
canvass of 1867, he labored with great diligence and character
istic ardor and zeal.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NEW DEPAETUEE.

PEEHAPS no political movement in this country ever created
a greater sensation than did the New Departure. This name
may not be altogetner appropriate — probably it is not ; but
we use it because by it the movement is generally designated
and known. It was not a sudden thing with Mr. Vallandig-
ham. He had contemplated it for more than a year, and only
waited a favorable time for its development. That time, at
least in his opinion, at length came.

On the 18th day of May, 1871, the Democracy of Mont
gomery County, Ohio, met in convention in the city of Dayton.
The object of the meeting was to appoint delegates to the State
Convention which was to assemble on the first day of June.
The meeting was organised by the election of the Hon. G. "W.
Houk, President, Judge McKemy and Mayor Morrison, Vice-
Presidents, and George P. Boyer, Esq., Secretary.

On taking the chair Mr. Houk made an able address, in
which, not obscurely, he shadowed forth the action which was
afterwards taken by the meeting. He said : —

" To entitle the Democratic party to success in the approach
ing contest, we must make a distinct declaration of our prin
ciples and purposes upon the living issues of the present. We
are a historical, but not merely a historical organization. ^ The
task before us now, is the rescue of the country from misrule

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 437

and the preservation of our constitutional system of govern
ment.

"We must recognise and accept the changed state of the
country as actually resulting from the war.

" Democratic principles are unchangeable, but Democratic
statesmanship modifies in countless methods the application of
these principles to the changed circumstances and necessities of
society.

" The war has left us new questions to meet — questions of
finance, taxation, citizenship, and constitutional status.

"It is folly to attempt to reverse events. If an earthquake
has made a lake where there was once a mountain, men must
accept the lake for the mountain.

"So in political convulsions. It is only true political
wisdom to recognise and accept the actual changes, for it is
these with which we must deal.

" Let us therefore accept universal suffrage, but demand that
it shall be universal. Let us accept the amendments that have
been made to the Constitution as de facto amendments, and
live up to them, subordinating them only to the principles of
the Constitution itself.

"We might as well talk of the Tower of Babel as of
slavery. It was about the time of the flood.

" So also of other matters of the past.

" What we want now for this vigorous body of the young
Democracy is not the dreamy contemplation of the past, but
the energetic spirit of the present. We want to grapple with
what is before us, not to waste our strength by struggling with
that which is receding further and further from us as time
advances.

"What we predicted more than twenty years ago, as the
ultimate result of slavery agitation and the ascendancy of that
element in our politics, has all come to pass — civil war,
negro equality, and all.

" Let us simply, therefore, recognise things as they are, and
by our organization and power give assurance to the people of
the country that we will correct the abuses of mal-administra-
tion, that we will carefully regard the rights and interest of the
producing and industrial classes, whilst extending to capital all
the consideration it is entitled to ; and that we will preserve and
defend as the great sheet-anchor of our future safety and great-

438 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ness as a people, the true principles of our Constitutional system
of government as established by its founders/'

On motion of Mr. Vallandigham, it was resolved that a
committee be appointed to draft resolutions for the considera
tion of the meeting ; whereupon the chair appointed the fol
lowing : C. L. "Vallandigham, Dr. A. Geiger, David A. Houk,
Dr. John Kemp, John A. McMahon, Adam Clay, and George
Y Naureth.

After the appointment of delegates to the State Convention,
and the transaction of some other business, Mr. "Vallandigham,
from the Committee on Resolutions, reported the following : —

"Whereas, The Democratic party of 1871 is made up of
men who previous to and during the late war, as also for a
time since, entertained totally different opinions and supported
totally opposite measures as to the questions and issues of those
times, and whereas it is 'reasonable to assume that these same
men still entertain, to a large extent, their several opinions,
and would, if in like circumstances, support again substantially
the same measures ; and whereas a rational toleration among
men resolved to unite in a present common purpose, does not
require a surrender in any particular of former opinions, or
any acknowledgment of error as to measures heretofore sup
ported :

"Resolved, BY THE DEMOCRACY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

"1. That agreeing to disagree in all respects as to the past,
we cordially unite upon the living issues of the day, and
hereby invite all men of the Republican party who believe
now upon present issues as we believe, to co-operate fully and
actively with us upon the basis of perfect equality with every
member of the Democratic party.

" 2. That waiving all differences of opinion as to the ex
traordinary means by which they were brought about, we
accept the natural and legitimate results of the war so far as
waged for its ostensible purpose to maintain the Union and tho
Constitutional rights and powers of the Federal Government,
including the three several amendments de facto to the Con-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 439

stitution recently declared adopted, as a settlement in fact of
all the issues of the war, and acquiesce in the same as no longer
issues before the country.

" 3. That 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 recon
struction is complete, and representation within the Union re
stored to all the States, waiving all question as to the means by
which it was accomplished, we demand that the vital and long
established rule of STRICT CONSTRUCTION, as proclaimed by the
Democratic fathers, accepted by the statesmen of all parties
previous to the war, and embodied in the Tenth Amendment
to the Constitution, be vigorously applied now to the Constitu
tion as it is, including the three recent amendments above re
ferred to, and insist that these amendments shall not be held
to have in any respect altered or modified the original theory
and character of the Federal Government as designed and
taught by its founders, and repeatedly in early times, in later
times,, and at all times, affirmed by the Supreme Court of the
United States ; but only to have enlarged the powers delegated
to it, and to that extent, and no more, to have abridged the re
served rights of the States ; and that as thus construed accord
ing to these ancient and well established rules, 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.

" 4. That the absolute equality of each and every State, within
the Union, is a fundamental principle of the Federal Govern
ment, and that no department of that Government has power to
expel a State from the Union, or to deprive it, under any pretext
whatever, of its equal rights therein, including especially the
right of full and complete representation in Congress and in
the Electoral colleges.

" 5. That we will always cherish and uphold the American
system of State and Local Self-Go vernment, for State and
local purposes, and a General Government for general purposes
only ; and are unalterably opposed to all attempts at centrali
sation and consolidation of power in the hands of the General
Government ; and the more especially when such attempts are
in the form of usurpation by any department of that Govern-

440 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ment. And further, that we adhere firmly to the principle of
maintaining a perfect independence between the co-ordinate
departments of that Government, the Legislative, the Execu
tive, and the Judicial ; condemning all encroachments by one
upon the functions of the others.

" 6. That outside of fundamental law, all legislation is in
its nature and purposes temporary, and subject to change, mod
ification, or repeal at the will of a majority of the people, ex
pressed through the law-making power ; and that the pretence
that any Act of Congress, not executed and spent, or any legis
lative policy of a party, is an absolute finality, is totally incon
sistent with the whole theory of republican government ; and
that it is the unquestionable right of the people of themselves
and through their representatives, at each successive election,
and in each successive Congress, to judge of what legislation is
necessary and proper or appropriate to carry into execution or
enforce the constitutional powers, rights, and duties of the
Federal Government.

" 7. That as an instance of eminently appropriate legislation
under the Fourteenth Amendment, in the name of wisdom,
justice and republican government, and to secure universal po
litical rights and equality among both the white and the colored
people of the United States, to the end that we may have peace
at last, we call now, as well on behalf of the North as of the
South, upon Congress for a universal amnesty.

" 8. That we are in favor of the payment of the public debt
at the earliest practicable moment consistent with moderate
taxation; and the more effectually to secure and hasten the pay
ment, we demand the strictest honesty and economy in every
part of the administration of the Government.

" 9. That we are in favor of such revenue reform as will
greatly simplify the manner of and reduce the number of of
ficers engaged in collecting and disbursing revenue, and largely
diminish the now enormous expense to the Government and
annoyance and vexation to the people attending the same ; and
further, will make the burdens of taxation equal, uniform, and
just, and no greater than the necessities of the Government
economically administered shall require.

" 10. That we are in favor of a searching and adequate re
form in the civil service of the Government so as to secure
faithfulness, honesty and efficiency in all its branches, and in
every officer and appointee connected with it.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 441

"11. That we are in favor of a strictly revenue tariff con
formed to the theory and principles of all other just and wise
tax laws.

" 1 2. That all taxation ought to be based on wealth instead
of population ; and that every person should be required to
contribute to the support of the Government in proportion to
the amount and not with reference to the character of his
property.

" 13. That specie is the basis of all sound currency, and that
true policy requires as speedy a return to that basis as is prac
ticable without distress to the debtor-class of the people.

" 14. That there is no necessary or irrepressible conflict
between labor and capital ; that without capital or consolidated
wealth no country can flourish ; that capital is ientitlecl to the
just and equal protection of the laws, and that aft men, whether
acting individually or in a corporate capacity, have the right by
fair and honest means, and not for the purposes of wrong or
oppression, to so use their property as to increase and consoli
date it to the utmost extent within their power. But conceding
all this, we declare our cordial sympathy and co-operation with
the producers and working men of the country who make and
move all capital, and who only seek by just and necessary
means to protect themselves against the oppressive exactions of
capital, and to ameliorate their condition and dignify their
calling.

"15. That we are totally and resolutely opposed to the
grant of any more of the public lands, the common property
of the people of the States, to corporations for railroad or other
purposes; holding that these lands ought to be devoted as
homesteads to actual settlers, or sold in small quantities to in
dividuals at a price so low as to induce speedy occupation and
settlement.

"16. That, holding still to the good old Democratic doc
trine of annexation or acquisition of territory, we are yet
totally opposed to the scheme of President Grant to acquire
San Domingo as a 'job/ and by the means and for the purposes
evidently intended, and accept the issue he has tendered in his
late message submitting the subject to the decision of the
people.

"17. That the Act commonly called the ' Bayonet Bill/
recently passed by Congress, amendatory to the Act of May

442 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM.

31, 1870, and a supplement to the Act of July 14, 1870, each
and all intended and so contrived as to interfere with and
practically subvert free popular elections in all the States, sub
jecting them to the absolute control, through the military
power whenever called forth, of the President and Comman
der-in-chief for the time being of the land and naval forces of
the United States; and the more recent Act of Congress
commonly called the ' Ku-Klux Bill/ extending by its terms
to every State, intermeddling with the exclusively local concerns
of every State, authorising the President upon the existence of
a condition of things to be ascertained and determined by him
self and in the exercise of his sole judgment, to suspend the
writ of habeas, corpus in time of peace, and to march the stand
ing army irito*any State and declare martial law therein at his
own mere wil£ and pleasure, thus subverting the entire civil
power, legislative, executive, and judicial, of such State, destroy
ing freedom of speech and of the press and the peaceable assem
bling of the people, and subjecting every person therein to mil
itary arrest, trial and execution, were enacted for no other purpose
than to complete the centralisation of all power in the hands of the
General Government, establish a military despotism, and thus
perpetuate the present Administration without regard to the
will of the people, and are not only utterly inconsistent with the
whole theory and character of the Federal Government and revo
lutionary and dangerous in their nature, but in direct conflict
with the spirit and letter of the Constitution, including the
amendments which they pretend to enforce.

"18. That the Radical party of 1871 as now constituted is
not the Republican party of the period previous to the war,
nor the so-called ' Union party ' during the war, and is in no
respect entitled to beg the public confidence as such ; that it is
now only an 'Administration y or ' Grant party/ dating back to
March 4, 1869, and to be judged by its record since; and that
upon that record, totally hostile to the doctrines and policies
herein maintained, and wholly committed to the policies and
doctrines herein denounced, it deserves the emphatic condem
nation of the people."

In reporting the resolutions from the committee, Mr. Yal-
landigham said : —

"These resolutions, Mr. President, sufficiently explain

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 443

themselves. The principles and policies which they enunciate
require the honest censure of those only whose hostility is
sincere. Carping criticism we both expect and contemn.

"For more than two years past the bitter and bloody
passions of the war have been gradually, but steadily and surely
dying out. Continual and irreconcileable dissent upon the
new issues necessarily born of to-day, and even bitter personal
discord among men of the Kepublican party who had stood
together on the questions of the past, inevitably followed. The
Democratic party wisely remained silent, or confined itself to
these new issues. The Republican party having fulfilled its
original mission, was rapidly falling into decay. Moderation,
justice and peace were becoming to its more violent leaders the
sentence of death ; the Administration party, into which since
the 4th of March, 1869, it has been wholly transferred, had
begun from causes thoroughly understood to be odious and
even intolerable to the people. Upon the issues of amnesty ;
of honesty in the legislative and executive departments ; of the
tariff; of revenue and civil service reform ; of land grants to
corporations ; the currency ; taxation ; San Domingo, and other
similar questions, it was certain to be condemned. Necessity
required that some decisive movement should be made to avert
impending defeat. Not the statesmen, but the mere politicians,
the sycophants of the party, the parasites clinging to and deriv
ing nurture solely from Executive favor, were called into coun
cil. These Bourbons of the present hour, the men who forget
nothing, learn nothing, resolved upon one more appeal to the
expiring passions and prejudices of their partisans — the war
cries of the past. If civil war in fact could not again be inau
gurated, civil war in form, with all its legislative and executive
machinery, and all its political appliances, must be revived in
every State : to secure first, the re-nomination, and next, the
re-election of General Grant. The belligerent pronunciamento
went forth; the bloody blast of the war bugle was again
sounded. A distinguished Senator, the confidential adviser
and main support of the President, himself a consummate par
tisan leader, but powerful in proportion to the unskilfulness
and cowardice of his foes, was put forth as the chief fomentor
of this new crusade. But I say to him and to all behind him,
that the hour has now come when neither he nor they can be
permitted to provoke or to dictate issues for the Democratic

444 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

party, or to ignore those which the revolving years and chang
ing condition of the country necessarily bring forth. That
which since 1868 has been but a question of time, is now upon
us. The auspicious moment, the golden opportunity, ' the tide
in the affairs of men to be taken at the flood/ has now, in my
deliberate judgment, reached us, when the Democratic party
of to-day, laying aside every weight, and shaking from it the
dead body of the past, yet adhering to its ancient principles,
can and must at one bound place itself upon the vantage
ground of the present, and defy its enemies to battle upon the
living issues of the hour. It is the purpose of these resolutions
to establish the Democratic party of Montgomery County openly
and squarely upon this firm and impregnable basis. Tacitly
and in fact we have stood upon it for the past two years, and
victory has steadily been ours. Confident I am that we shall
meet a prompt and very cordial response from our brethren
elsewhere and everywhere, in this and other States. Person
ally I care not for denunciation or unjust criticism from, any
quarter. Upon fullest deliberation and ample counsel with
wise and brave men of the party, I take the responsibility.
With pride and pleasure I add, too, that as these resolutions are
the fruit of the joint labors and counsels of the gentlemen
associated with me here at home, so also this movement meets
their hearty concurrence. It is not a New Departure, but a
Return ; the restoration of the Democratic party once more to
the ancient platform of Progress and Reform ; establishing the
great fact that that party, like everything else in nature in
tended to -endure, is capable of adapting itself to the perpetual
growth and change which belong alike to the political and
the physical world, and retain yet intact the original principles
and laws of its being. Moreover, as to the movement here, we
all bear witness that in it there is nothing of a merely personal
character, either to advance or to hinder any member of the
Democratic party anywhere — nothing except the earnest and
fixed purpose to promote the welfare of the whole party, and
with it, of the whole country."

The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the Con
vention adjourned.

Such was the inauguration of the New Departure. The

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 445

resolutions together with the speeches of Mr. Houk, the
President of the meeting, and Mr. Yallandigham, the chair
man of the Committee, sufficiently indicate the spirit and the
purpose of the movement. In further explanation we give
the following editorial from the Dayton Ledger. Commenting
on the action of the Convention, the editor says : —

" As a part of the history of these resolutions, we consider
it necessary to state that they were drafted by Mr. Yallandig-
ham, after much deliberation, and a full and free consultation
with leading Democrats, both here and in other quarters of the
State. Their reception, both in the committee room and the
Convention, was unanimous and enthusiastic, scarcely a verbal
alteration even being made after the fullest discussion and
most acute criticism. Such a fact alone is deeply significant,
for it shows the tendency of the minds of men to harmonise
and concentrate upon the real living issues, and how truthfully
Mr. Yallandighain has embodied and expressed in the resolu
tions the sentiments which have hitherto being gathering force
among men of all parties, viz : that the Republican party
having accomplished its mission, is now a failure in govern
ment, and that something must be conceded by the Democratic
party to its dissatisfied elements in order to secure their co
operation in restoring the country to real peace and prosperity.
We repeat that such an act of magnanimity was worthy of the
traditions and history of the Democratic party, and from no
man could the movement more appropriately emanate than
from Mr. Yallandigham, whose devotion to the organization
and to the interests of the country through it has been attested
by a thousand sacrifices."

This new movement was cordially and enthusiastically
endorsed by many leading Democratic papers in all parts of
the Union. The State Convention of Ohio which met on the
first of June, adopted substantially the Dayton resolutions.
The same was the case with conventions in several other States.
"With the conservative press, and with conservative men who

446 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

had for years acted with the Republican party, the movement
met with much favor. Two days after the Montgomery County
meeting, Chief-Justice Chase wrote the following letter to Mr.
Vallandigham : —

" WASHINGTON, D. C., May 20.

"My Dear Sir: — I have just read the resolutions of the
Montgomery County (Ohio) Democratic Convention, reported
by yourself, together with your remarks and those of Mr.
Houk. You have rendered great service to your country and
the party; at least, such is my judgment. May God bless you
for it. Nothing can be truer than your declaration that the
movement contemplated by the resolutions is the restoration
of the Democratic party to its ancient platform of progress
and reform. I know you too well to doubt your courage or
your fidelity to your conclusions.

" Very truly yours,

"S. P. CHASE.

"Hon. C. L. Yallandigkam."

The following extracts show the manner in which the move
ment was received by the Conservative and some of the Demo
cratic press : —

From the New York Sun (Independent Republican), 20th: —

"The hour has struck, and the man has arrived. Mr.
Clement L. Vallandigham has sounded a trumpet that will
reverberate through the land. . . .

" Mr. Vallandigham is a progressive statesman and a wary
politician. He has just exemplified both these qualities by
constructing a platform for the Democracy which is precisely
adapted to the new epoch. Without raising controversies about
how we got into the war or how we got out of it, he accepts
its results as fixed facts, and daes not look backward, but turns
his eye toward the future. Not stopping to criticise the wis
dom of every phase of the reconstruction measures, or quibble
over the mode whereby the three amendments were engrafted
upon the Constitution, he takes them as valid portions of that
instrument, and treats them as a final and irrevocable settlement
of the matters to which they relate. He then falls back upon

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 447

the Constitution as it is, and insists that it shall be accepted in
its entirety, including all its modern improvements, and shall
hereafter be construed and enforced according to the funda
mental doctrines enunciated by such eminent exponents of the
Democratic creed as Jefferson, Jackson, Benton, and Wright,
who would maintain all the powers of the National Govern
ment without impairing the rights of the several States.

" Having thus disposed of constitutional questions, Mr.
Vallandigham. foreshadows a comprehensive policy in respect
to the living issues of the day, such as general amnesty, tax
ation, the tariff, retrenchment, civil service reform, San Do
mingo annexation, Ku-Klux legislation, and the like, hitting
a happy medium between the extremes on all these vexed mat
ters; and he winds up by inviting the people of all parties,
localities, colors, and creeds to come upon his platform as
equals, and to rally around the banner of the Union and help
to fight the great battles of the future. This programme and
the speech in which he explained and defended it, and the
unanimity with which it was ratified by the assembled Demo
cracy of Montgomery, place Mr. Vallandigham. among the most
conspicuous political leaders of the day."

From the New York Herald, 21st : —

" Vallandigham is the Phil Sheridan of his party, and has
sent the old Democratic leaders whirling in every direction.
His platform, enunciated at the Dayton Convention, meets with
general favor, despite the opposition of the timid, badly scared
Bourbons. The executive committee of Hamilton County,
Ohio, yesterday unanimously and cordially endorsed Vallan-
digham's views, and they will also be readily adopted by the
party throughout the State."

From the Philadelphia Evening Herald: —

" The Ohio Democracy in State Convention assembled, with
Hon. Geo. H. Pendleton as chairman, yesterday fully endorsed
the Vallandigham resolutions, and thus laid another stone on
the broad foundation upon which the structure of coming Dem
ocratic success is to be built. The work goes bravely on; and
we may confidently expect that in a little while the Democrats

448 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. •

in every State in the Union, forgetting past differences, will
place themselves fairly and squarely upon the same strong
platform."

From the Louisville Courier-Journal : —

" In spite of all that has been said agains.t the platform pro
posed by Mr. Vallandigham, it was adopted. Ohio places
herself alongside of Pennsylvania ; other States will follow,
and long before the campaign of next year the anti-Radical
column will be united on a broad and sound basis of rational
Democracy. It will be quite idle for malcontents and imprac-
ticables to read the Democracy of the entire country out of the
Democratic party. That won't go, and, besides, there are too
many of them to make a departure in that direction a desirable
object. Indiana has already expressed with sufficient emphasis.
Nothing can now stay the tide of conservatism, and which will
be ample enough and generous enough to embrace all the liberal
elements of the North and South. Ohio has done admirably.
All honor to Clement L. Vallandigham."

From the Cleveland Plaindealer : —

" The Republican newspapers of Ohio are most thoroughly
dissatisfied with the Democratic platform. While it makes no
apology for the position the Democratic party has held in the
past, it recognises the situation, accepts facts that are accom
plished, refuses to play heads and tails on the grave of issues
that were live ones only in '62, '63, '64 and '65 ; it refuses to
allow the Republican party to put a ring-fence around us and
keep us dancing to the same old tunes and rattling the same
old bones. The vital principle of progress has been resurrected
in our organization, and, having outflanked its enemies by
marching past the pits they had spread for it, it has opened its
guns from an advanced position, and pierced the enemy's
centre. Inspired with renewed hope, and strengthened as it
will be by many thousands who, in the past, have deserted us,
the onward march of the Democracv will be irresistible."

But although this movement was received with favor in all
parts of the country, and was hailed as the harbinger of better

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 449

days, it also encountered a violent opposition. Many Demo
crats regarded it as a surrender of principle. Not so was it
considered by Mr. Vallandigham and those who acted with
him. They adhered as strictly as ever to all the great prin
ciples of the Democratic party which they had always professed
and maintained. They believed, just as every intelligent man
in the country believes, that the amendments to the Constitu
tion in question were secured by force and fraud ; that the
people of the Southern States if left to themselves, allowed
to act freely, to vote as they pleased, would never have con
sented to their adoption. But these amendments had been
proclaimed by those in authority, parts of the Constitution ;
they had gone into operation, had been acquiesced in; op
position to them on the part of the Democracy, contention
about them, would be vain and useless : why then waste time
and strength in a fruitless enterprise ? Such were the views of
the men who inaugurated the New Departure : they wished to
bury the dead issues of the past, and fight on the living issues
of the present. This they considered their only hope of success
in the approaching campaign of 1872.

There were some who were inclined to impugn the motives
of Mr. Vallandigham in this matter; but for this there was
no just ground. By what selfish motive could he have been
actuated? He was not seeking popularity: this he never aimed
at in his life ; and besides, he knew that by this movement he
would lose as many friends as he would gain. He knew that
it would be violently opposed, and was girding on his armor
for a bold and determined conflict. Nor was he influenced by
u desire to advance the claims or the interests of one sot of
politicians in opposition to those of another; this he distinctly
29

450 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

disavowed. In this whole matter we are satisfied that his
motives were pure and unselfish. He was actuated by an
earnest desire to secure the success of the Democratic party,
and through it to advance the best interests of the country.
And whatever may be the ultimate effect of this New De
parture, which time has yet to determine, it is certain that he
indulged the most sanguine expectations of a highly favor
able result. This is evident from the following extracts from
the last political speech he ever made, delivered on the night of
the 1st of June 1871, past the midnight hour, at the close of
the State Convention that had on that day adopted, at least
substantially, the resolutions that he had drafted and presented
at the Dayton meeting : — >

"To-day we have achieved a glorious triumph; to-day
we have sent forth tidings of great joy all over the land. The
Democratic party stands now upon the vantage ground of the
present and offers battle to its enemies ; and hand to hand and
shoulder to shoulder, marches forth and meets them in this
struggle upon the living issues of the present hour [cheers] ;
and upon these issues we will triumph. Throughout the
entire State of Ohio will come a response, and not from Ohio
only, but from other States, from one end of the country to
the other, full of joy and rejoicing, to-morrow, from the At
lantic to the Pacific, from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico,
that at last the Democratic party is ready to grapple with
its foes and to crush them, as in former times it did; and that
•once more there is hope that this old, battle-worn Republic
of ours, bearing, it may be, the scars which it has received
in the recent grand convulsion, will yet live, and live in the
spirit in which the fathers framed it. [Applause.] ....

" I rejoice that the veterans of the party, the ( subterraneans '
of the olden time, are here in such great numbers, and with
hearts resolved to conquer. For years we have fought the
enemy from behind the now battered and crumbling earth
works of former issues, surrounded and hampered by the rub
bish and the skeleton corpses of the dead past. For one; I am

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 451

wearied of such fighting. Give us now and henceforth the
clear, open field, where face to face and hand to hand, and
with banners inscribed ' Progress and Reform/ we may give
battle to the enemies of Democratic-Republican Government.
I rejoice still more, Mr. President, to see here among us the
advancing hosts of the Young Democracy, with hearts full
of fire and hands full of strength, and hopes buoyant with life
and light as they look forward to the future. They are
resolved to live and move in the present. It is a wise saying:
Old men for counsel — provided they be not old fogies
[a laugh] — young men for action. The young men of the
party will win for us the victory."

Mr. Vallandigham closed as follows : —

" That grand system of government under which it is my
firm belief that we can unite the whole continent of North
America, yea, and the whole world ; that system which was
organised in 1789, is, in its original conception and its original
practice, sufficient for the entire globe, and now that we have
railroads and telegraphs, means of communication that did not
exist in former times, that system can prevail over the world,
under the principles of the Democratic party, which is an es
sential offshoot of that form of government, and which, born
with it, can only die with it.

"And, in my deliberate judgment, if we can but sustain
these institutions of ours, if in spite of these amendments,
which in the language of your platform delegate only so much
more power to the Federal Government, and only to that ex
tent abridge the reserved rights of the States, and do not in
any respect alter or modify the original character and theory of
the Federal Government, we can restore again the doctrines and
rules of construction and the practices of the fathers with equal
rights made secure to all, the youngest man in this assembly,
nay, the infant born to-day, who shall live beyond his three
score and ten, even by reason of strength to four-score, will
see this grand Old Republic of ours overspread the whole of
this mighty continent, and that flag of ours which we do love
and cherish, afloat in every breeze and triumphant upon every
sea. [Loud applause.]"

CHAPTEK XIX.

HABITS OF STUDY AND MENTAL DISCIPLINE.

FROM his earliest years Mr. "Vallandigham was a close and
diligent student. When only fifteen or sixteen years of age, as
we have already stated, he was accustomed frequently to spend
ten or twelve hours a day in study, and this too when he
was not at school or under any compulsion to study at all. At
that same period he was accustomed to shut himself up in his
room, and in a rather low voice, so as not to disturb the family
or attract attention, to declaim or to deliver extemporaneous
harangues, in order to acquire readiness and fluency in speak
ing. A similar course he pursued .when at college, as we learn
from his friend and companion, the Hon. Sherrard Clemens.
Mr. Clemens says : —

" His studies were varied, extensive, and exhaustive. Mil
ton's Paradise Lost and Burke's speeches and works seem to
have been his great favorites. He adopted a severe course of
intellectual training, read much aloud, and was in the habit,
after reading the speeches of some celebrated orator, to seek
some secluded place and declaim them over in his own language,
after having the subject-matter fully fixed in his mind. He
was in the habit of doing a similar thing after reading some
favorite author, as, for instance, Gibbon's History 'of Rome, to
reduce the thoughts to his own language. By this mode of
severe mental gymnastics, he attained very great facility both
in speaking and writing. As a speaker he was graceful, fluent,
forcible and impulsive, rising oftentimes to first-class oratory :

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 453

as a writer he exhibited many of the same characteristics. At
college the Bible was his great stand-by. Every Sunday was
devoted to a critical examination of it. He seemed to be never
weary of pointing out the beauties of Proverbs, the Book of
Job, Isaiah, the Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, and the Psalms
of David. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he contended, combined
more worldly wisdom than could be found anywhere else, and
if a father could only induce his child to act upon them, he
would secure him a more precious legacy than he could in any
other way. He contrasted them with Lord Chesterfield s
letters to his son and the maxims of the Duke de la Roche
foucauld, and showed how inferior they (the latter) were in
interest, beauty and practical efficacy."

Mr. Clemens proceeds to quote a great number of passages
which were particular favorites of Mr. Yallandigham, and
which he was accustomed very frequently to repeat. Among
them are the following : " Let thine eyes look right on, and let
thine eyelids look straight before thee." " He becometh poor
that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent
maketh rich." " The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and
a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." "A soft answer
turneth away wrath." " He that is slow to anger is better than
the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a
city." " If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is
small." "A just man falleth seven times and riseth up again."
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and
loving favor rather than silver and gold." The description of
a virtuous woman from the last chapter of Proverbs was often
repeated, as was also the description of the vanity of human
pursuits in the second chapter of Ecclesiastes. Mr. Clemens
further says: —

" In our walks around the woods of Canonsburg, we would
read or declaim to each other from Shakspeare, Milton, Byron's

454 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Cain and Manfred, Burke, Erskine, or other favorite authors,
Antony's speech over the dead body of Csesar, the quarrel
between Brutus and Cassius, Queen Catharine's speech on her
trial, including the celebrated passage, ' Here sits a judge whom
no king can corrupt/ Particular portions of Timon of Athens,
fearful in their denunciatory power, he dwelt upon with great
unction and the most exquisite delight. At this early period
his mind had taken a decidedly political bias, and his extracts
from Burke, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, Chatham, and other
prominent orators, were often rendered with great effect. Of
Americans, Calhoun stood first in his estimation, though his
arguments were so logical he did not often recite them ; but
passages from Webster he delighted in, and in point of intellect
he was next to Calhoun."

A few extracts from some of his letters will exhibit his
course of reading and study in later years. In a letter to his
brother James, Feb. 14, 1849, he says: —

" Since the Presidential election I have been studying and
reading closely. I have been reviewing the elementary works
on law, reading the classics, and particularly refreshing my
knowledge of Greek, which has always been imperfect. I be
gan with the grammar and am going through the course ; but
my main object is to be able to read Demosthenes readily in the
original: the translations I devoured long since. Besides
this, my miscellaneous reading (including the literary and law
periodicals and reviews) has been not a little. I took also
a pretty deep dip into old Chaucer, and found ( somethink '• very
new and interesting in his antique and crooked-looking poetry.
So you. see I have been ' redeeming the time/ in a secular way
at least. But I am also still, as ever, a close student of the
BIBLE ; without an intimate and constant study of which no
man's education can be finished and no man's character can be
complete."

To the same, July 19, 1851 :—

" Among the books which I have read during the spring
and winter, have been three of especial interest — The Life of
Dr. Chalmers, Sydney Smith's Sketches of Moral Philosophy,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGKEAM. 455

and Garland's Life of John Randolph — especially the second
volume. I never appreciated Chalmers before at his true
value : he was a wonderful man — I think the greatest pulpit
orator and the greatest man of his calling since Paul : in an
age of great men, he was among the very greatest."

To the same, December 6, 1855 : —

" I have here that great desideratum, a study, very neat
and cosy, and full of all my usual l contraptions/ Here I spend
my evenings. It is my chapel too. The day-time is devoted
to the office and court. I spend from fifty to a hundred
dollars a year for books — ' books that are books/ My taste
and course of study you may infer from a catalogue of the
books in my library here at the house. I have many at the
office also, professional and miscellaneous."

Here follows a long list, filling a whole sheet, of choice
books ; at the close of which he says : " These are all (or nearly
all) good library editions — good paper and type, and well
bound. I buy no fine-print books, and none of only casual or
temporary value."

To the same he writes, April 16, 1856, a letter in which he
speaks of himself and his affairs — Politically, Profession
ally, Domestically, Personally, and Theologically. Under
the Theological head he says : —

" Besides the continual study of the Bible, I am now read
ing Mosheim's Church History, Milton's Theological Treatise,
and Barrow's Sermons. These last I think are the finest and
most valuable every way in our language. Dealing little in
the metaphysics or mystics of theology, Barrow treats of
religion not as a head for disputation, a subject for tortuous
and torturing disquisition and dissection, but as a thing to be
lived out in our daily walk and conversation — something real,
palpable, and for use. This is what he wants whose earnest
desire, as mine, is to ( live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world, redeeming the time, diligent in business, fervent

456 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

in spirit, serving the Lord, and so using the things of the
World as not abusing them, remembering that the fashion
thereof passeth away.' "

It will be seen that Mr. Vallandigham read and studied not
only law and the classics and history, but also theology. He
supplied himself with an excellent system of theology, one
of the best published, and carefully studied it ; and his know
ledge of theology as well as of Church History was superior
to that of many a minister of the Gospel.

The following is an extract from a letter in the Cincinnati
Commercial, " written," says the editor, " by an intimate friend"
of Mr. Vallandigham : —

" I came to Dayton to study law with Mr. Vallaudigham
in the beginning of 1851, and lived in his house from that
time almost continuously until 1860. I was his partner from
November 1854, until he withdrew from practice, about 1859.
I can speak more certainly as to this period of time than any
other.

"Being myself a graduate of the Jesuits, with whom hard
study is always the order of the day, I was qualified to judge
of Mr. Vallandigham 's application. I have no hesitation in
saying that I never knew a person whose .study was more
systematic, unremitting and enduring. At times it was painful
to me. I often thought to myself, ( Is this the life of a man
who seeks reputation ? If so, is the game worth the candle ? '
He studied Sundays as well as week days, but his Sunday
reading was Jeremy Taylor, Chalmers, Mosheim, Lowth, the
Bible, Barrow, Cicero's Offices, &c. He was not an early riser
in my day, but he worked hard at night. His chief study was
statesmanship ; everything tended to his improvement in that
direction. This involved the close study of language and of
the graces of oratory. The first book he put into my hands
was Bronson's Elocution. In early days he practised from it
frequently, hence his distinct enunciation. But language he
deemed the weapon of the orator, and he understood the shades
of meaning of words very well.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 457

" His library is not large. His means, in a great portion
of his life, were limited ; his political contests involved the
neglect of his practice. But his library is very select. Burke,
I think, was his favorite author. I do not believe there is a
book in his library that is not marked (on the margins) from
one end to the other — many of them being re-read frequently.

"He was not much of a novel-reader, beyond the select
authors. He knew the "Waverley novels by heart, and took
great pleasure in some of Cooper's. But he read too slowly to
be able to read many. I think he would be two months at
one book ; I would finish the same book in a day.

" He was not, I think, in the last few years as close or
constant a reader or student as he had been. It would have
been strange if he had been. It was not necessary ; his mind
was already stored.

"His favorite reading was history and biography. He
loved to read how other men <5imbed the ladder he was on.
Plutarch's Lives was another great book with him, and Livy he
prized beyond measure. He called his books 'his brave
utensils/ as Caliban says Prospero called his. I have often
seen him stand before his library and strike his hands together
with an expression of delight in his countenance as he would
exclaim, ' My brave utensils ! ' I think he knew Shakspeare
and Milton almost by heart. He did not think much of the
poets beyond Burns, Byron, and the two I have mentioned.
You may depend upon one thing — when he thought an author
worth reading, he deemed him worthy of study. He very
rarely read a book ; he always studied it. He knew little of
astronomy or the natural sciences. I do not think he had a
legal mind as men like Taney, Thurman, or his partner
Haynes ; if he had, it was obscured by his political contests.
But when he entered upon the practice he threw his whole
soul into it, and hunted down the precedents — too numerously.
I remember of arguing against him an important case before
Judge Haynes, his present partner, then Judge, in which he
made a captivating speech, the Judge remarking as he came
down from the bench, ' What a fine effort ! but he sailed above
the questions/ I think that if he had confined himself to the
bar he would have made a very 'great lawyer. But he regarded
the law as his auxiliary. He often said that the wear and tear
of court were too much for him; he would get fat in a polit-

458 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ical campaign, and lose his flesh in the confined struggle at the
bar. The secret of this was to be found in his will. He dis
liked ( ntradiction, defeat or opposition ; and at the bar a man
must meet with them all. He cannot choose his causes nor
command his victories ; a pigmy may overthrow him with an
overlooked precedent.

" He was very fond of reading aloud, and was an excellent
reader. He was a good Latin scholar, reading Horace, Cicero,
and Quintilian frequently in the original."

Although Mr. Vallandigham cultivated his talent for
extemporaneous speaking more diligently than his talent for
writing, yet he was a fine writer. His letters to his friends,
even business letters, are often adorned with gems of thought
beautifully expressed, as well ^as with apt quotations from dis
tinguished authors, with which his memory was richly stored.
In a business letter to his brother James, dated Washington,
D.C., June 2, 1860, the following sentences occur: —

" I am younger and brighter now indeed for the most part
— happier sometimes, genial and gushing yet; though now
and then sad memories fall upon my soul as evening gathers
its twilight shades around me, and I listen mournfully to the
faint and yet fainter echoes of the footsteps of departed friends
and friendships, as they linger still in memory among the ivy-
grown columns and corridors of the former time. But ' look
not mournfully into the past ; it comes not back again. Wisely
improve the present ; it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy
future without fear and with a manly heart.7 But it is past
eleven o'clock, and I see the flags streaming from the Capitol,
and am recalled to the duties and business of the day."

The following letter of Mr. Vallandigham to his wife in
relation to the training of their son we here give, although the
training referred to is moral rather than mental. Still the
letter is so valuable that we think it ought to be published ;
and its insertion in this chapter would probably be as appro
priate as in any other : —

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 459

"WASHINGTON, D. C., May 18, 1862.

"... I write with the picture of my dear darling little
man before me. Although not very good, I look at t many
times a day. It reminds me deeply of him, and is thought by
others to represent a very sweet little boy. ' Oh that those
lips had language ! ' I talk to the picture just as I do to my
boy himself, and it looks as if it would speak, yet speaks not ;
yet memory supplies a world of what he has said to me.

" Dear little fellow ! Happy boy ! May he be a virtuous
youth and a noble man. He will be, he cannot but be ambi
tious : let it be the ambition of ( noble ends by noble means7:
virtue, honor, principle, let these be his watchwords; and in
simplicity and sincerity, without hypocrisy or fanaticism, let
him worship the God of his fathers, the Universal God, the
Almighty Maker of heaven and earth.

" Three qualities are essential, and they cannot be acquired
too soon : firmness, self-reliance, and self-denial. Let him be
a boy, a youth, a young man, and enjoy in moderation what
ever belongs to each of these successive periods. of life; but let
all be made subservient to health and strength physically, and
to the development of gradual, not precocious, maturity of the
moral and intellectual faculties, postponing the stronger pleas
ures and indulgences of sense, so far as lawful, till the body
and mind and will are fully strengthened; the sound mind
and sound body will then as keenly and much more wisely
appreciate them at forty as the most reckless youth of twenty.

"Let him be noble, and generous, and brave, and frank, and
true. Let him shun vice, and scorn meanness. Let him cul
tivate — I know he has it naturally also — delicacy and purity.
I would have no profane or foul word uttered in his presence,
even as to things lawful and necessary; and no doubtful allu
sion before him. Juvenal was right —

1 Nil dictufoedum msuque liac limina tangat
Intro, qucB puer est.'

" Alas, alas, what a world of temptation he will have to
encounter ! ' Let him learn to be firm ; let him learn to say
no to tempters without, and to the tempter within. It is a
hard lesson, but the sooner it is learned the better. I would
have him pious. I like that word ; it is a better and broader
word than religious, and it implies more steadfastness and uni
formity. Especially let him have FAITH — faith in God; and

460 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

man, and woman. Let him have it, and cultivate and encour
age it while young: alas! he will learn to doubt the world at
least soon enough. But faith will remove mountains : it will
sustain him when all else fails, even when sight is not only
wanting, but when it seems actually opposed to faith. I have
tried it as in the fiery furnace, and when millions fell away I
faltered not. Paul's magnificent chapter on faith is all true,
whether applied to religion or to things of this life.

" But I am writing a treatise, when I sat down to write a
letter. Take care of our dear precious little boy, and teach
him all these things. Some of them he may not be able to
comprehend till he is older ; but preserve this letter for him.

•" One thing I forgot, though indeed it is implied in what I
have written : let him be full of courage, calm, quiet, unflinch
ing courage, physical and moral, afraid of nothing except to
do wrong. And to this I would have him add fortitude, the
virtue of endurance. To DO AND TO SUFFER — these make up
much of the great business of life.

" Precious boy ! May God preserve thy life and make thee
good and great ! And if all this, then he must have and will
have that noble but very rare virtue of true amor patrice,
love of country.

"As to books, he is too young yet to require any suggestions
in regard to them. But let him read the Bible diligently from
his boyhood up."

Mr. Yallandigham was a fine reader, was fond of reading
aloud, and often thus read for the instruction and entertain
ment of his family. But although he was a constant
reader of books and a close student, he was also an acute
observer of men and things around him. He studied the
public men with whom he mingled, acquired an accurate
^knowledge of their character, and of this knowledge his friends
sometimes availed themselves for their own guidance and
direction, as the following incident will illustrate. Col. Keys
of Cincinnati, who was on General McClellan's staff) was
always a warm friend of Mr. Yallandigham, and had the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 461

greatest confidence in his judgment and admiration of his
abilities. Just before Hon. E. M. Stanton was appointed
Secretary of War, Col. Keys had a long conversation with Mr.
Yallandigham in regard to the public men of the United
States. Mr. Yallandigham had in his earliest days been a
strong and intimate friend of Stanton, and in the course of this
conversation he expressed in the highest terms his admiration
of the great power of intellect, untiring energy, and the firm
ness and industry of that gentleman. Just after speaking of
this, the Colonel abruptly broke off the conversation and left
the room. Mr. Yallandigham never understood the signifi
cance of this intervew until many years afterwards. General
McClellan had been given the choice of the new Secretary of
War in the place of Cameron, who was about to be removed ;
he had referred the matter to Colonel Keys, and the latter had
brought up this conversation with Mr. Yallandigham to learn
his views of the character of the " men of the time." The
Colonel had never thought of Stanton, but he was so impressed
by what Mr. Yallandigham said of the man that he imme
diately suggested the name to General McClellan. The
General was impressed with what Keys said of Stanton, and
by what he discovered upon inquiry as to the determination
and untiring energy which were Stanton's great characteristics.
He proposed his name to President Lincoln, who immediately
appointed him. And thus indirectly, and unconsciously as far
as he was concerned, Mr. Yallandigham, the great advocate of
peace, and the leader of the peace Democracy, was instrumental
in putting into place and power the man who more than any
other contributed to the success of the Federal arms and to the
final triumph of the war party of the North. What a com-

462 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

mentary is here furnished upon the utter inability of even the
greatest genius to comprehend the effect, in the future, of the
most trivial act or remark, or to understand what will be the
result, extending to all the coming years, of the most private
or thoughtless conversation !

The above incident together with others connected with the
secret history of the war, Mr. Vallandigham was, just before
his death, preparing to furnish to the Galaxy magazine for
publication. Had he lived it is probable that he would have
devoted considerable time and attention to literary pursuits.
He had in contemplation several literary enterprises, among
them a history of the late Civil War, for the preparation of
which he had already collected some material when his active,
career was suddenly cut short by his sad and tragical death.

CHAPTER XX.

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CHARACTER.

CLEMENT L. YALLANDIGHAM was a man of iron will, of
unflinching courage, of indomitable energy, and of untiring
industry and perseverance : he possessed in a very high degree
all those sterner qualities that command the respect and elicit
the admiration of men. This is acknowledged alike by friend
and foe. But he possessed also in the highest degree those
gentler qualities that secure affection. Love of home and
home-joys, attachment to his friends, affection for his relatives,
rejoicing in their prosperity and sympathising with them in
their sorrows — these were^traits of character for which he was
remarkably distinguished. His was as warm, as affectionate
a heart as ever throbbed in human bosom. The evidence of
this will be seen in the letters which follow, presented not in
the order of date, but in the order best suited to illustrate the
traits above referred to.

The following letter is addressed to his eldest brother, the
Rev. James L. Vallandigham. With this brother he studied
Latin and Greek, and afterwards law, and on his admission to
the bar became his partner, and continued such till the former
left the profession of law and entered the ministry : —

"DAYTON, OHIO, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 1849.
"My Dear Brother: — I have hesitated some minutes, pon
dering as to which of you I should address this letter, seeing

464 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM.

that you (I mean sisters M. and R. and yourself) are all to
gether. But I conclude to address it to you (although I am
perhaps in debt to both of them, and you to me), since I can
and mean to write an ' epistle general/ after the manner of
Peter. R.'s most welcome letter is before me, and I write
with an eye to it, hoping she will, in consideration of my much

business, take this as an answer for the present I need

not say how greatly pleased I should be to see you all again.
Indeed I begin to feel almost sad when I think how 'far and
wide' we are all separated — we who gathered once, night and
morn, around the same parental hearth. But Mrs. Remans
has expressed my every feeling in poetical language and
imagery which I cannot command. Our father, dear father, is
gone whence we cannot recall him. He walked with God,
and is not, for God took him. But our mother yet lives, and
we all are still spared; and I hope that though scattered now,
many happy re-unions yet await us around that same blessed
family-hearth whose fires have with so much rejoicing been
again lighted up.

" But you will no doubt be interested equally, if not more,
in the news of the present as in recollections of the past or
anticipations of the future. Next to a visit, the most pleasur
able thing to me is a minute description and account of family
matters and news. It brings you right home and sets you
down in the midst of your friends. Well, let me tell you how
we are < getting along/ as the phrase goes. First, then, we
live in a moderate-sized but very neat house, and very con
veniently arranged. It is on Second Street, west of the First
Presbyterian Church, rather far down towards the river. We
have a neat little yard and garden around it. Our bedroom is
up stairs, between two other rooms, with a door opening upon
an upper porch fronting the east. We have a nice little coal
stove to sit by. During the day I am at the office, but spend
every evening at home, unless we are both out visiting. We
sit before our little open stove, one on each side of our table,
Louisa sewing, and I studying or reading aloud. And thus
the evenings pass, except that now and then a loud knock an
nounces that a friend is ready to drop in and sit awhile with
us. We have been quite social this winter, going out or re
ceiving visits frequently. The young ladies and gentlemen
often drop in and take tea with us, which, as we have a good

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. ' 465

market, and ( Sally ' is an excellent ( help/ gives us no trouble.
So separated as we are from all our relatives, . . we are mak
ing the time pass as pleasantly as possible."

The following is an extract from a letter to Mrs. Mary E.
Vallandigham, wife of his brother James. To this relative he
was warmly attached. While living at Snow Hill, Maryland,
he became acquainted with her, and at " Salem," the hospitable
residence of her father on the edge of the village, he spent many
a pleasant hour: —

"DAYTON, OHIO, May 31, 1849.

" My Very Dear /Sister: — It has been so long since I heard
from any of you that I begin to feel anxious to know what the
news of your fireside is, and what events have transpired since
brother James's last letter in February. The fault indeed of
this long silence is mine, for I have not before found leisure to
answer that full and most welcome letter. In truth, I was
hardly conscious that so long a time had passed since I received
it. But, ah me ! dear sister, how swiftly fly the hours now !
I had occasion to-day to look over some of my Columbiana old
law-papers, and the past few years stood all before me in pleas
ing but melancholy array, yet all as though of yesterday. A
thousand things which I had forgotten rushed back in fresh
recollection upon my mind —

* The joys, the tears of long passed years,
The words of love then spoken.'

Let those laugh at the sentiment who never had a happy
home ; but how dear to me are the hallowed recollections of
the home of my childhood, boyhood and youth ! Poor Lisbon !
she is not what she has been. Dilapidation, decay and death
seem to have marked her for their own. Yet, though I could
not by any means be prevailed on to exchange for her this the
most beautiful and charming place in all the West, I love her
still — I love her for the past, for the multiplied associations
connected with her. Did we not spend some sunny hours
there ! But we are all now separated far and wide, hearing no
more the same church-bell nor greeting each other around the
same hearth. Do you remember the Sabbath evenings in the

30

466 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

orchard where we lingered till gray twilight crept over forest
and field, and day died away on the hill-tops ? Or those other
evenings which we passed in summer on the little platform
around the front-door or under the trees in the yard, while the
moonbeams stole quietly through the foliage and fell lightly
upon the grass, and the crickets chirped plaintively among the
weeds in the lane? But enough. Let us remember the
lessons of philosophy : ' Look not mournfully into the past ;
it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present ; it is
thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and
with a manly heart/ Or the yet holier precepts of the Bible :
' So numbering our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom.'
Well, then, not forgetting the past with its sweet but melan
choly pleasures, let us turn to the present and the future. Oh,
how I wish you were all with us in this beautiful place ! Our
house now (we have moved) is near the First Presbyterian
Church, and in the handsomest part of the city. It is on a corner
lot, and from our porch and front-door we look out on beauties
amid which Sylvanus and the Dryads might well love to dwell,
and this too in the midst of the city — the birds sing around
us every morning. But I cannot describe to you the charms
in and about our little city. The grandeur indeed which be
longs to mountainous regions we have not, but all the beauties
of the plain are ours. And the people are just as hospitable
and agreeable as the place is handsome. When will you come
and see us ? "

To the same : —

" DAYTON, March 18, '54

" . . . We do not now expect to visit the East this summer,
but shall spend some time in New Lisbon Shall we never
meet again ? Shall we never even hear from you again ? We
both unite in our best love to you all. Irving, I presume, will
soon be a young man ; it is but as yesterday since I first saw
him an infant one day old. But I am getting gray myself,
and 'am not what I have been, and the glow which in my
spirit dwelt ' is turned now to the sober and steady light of
manhood. And how, and who, and what are you now, who
were once Mary Spence, ( witching ' the sand-hills of old
Worcester like Di Vernon with i noble horsemanship,' and
reading Childe Harold and Scott's novels as if there were no

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 467

realities to be grappled with in life ? Verily I began with the
figures of arithmetic and have ended with figures of rhetoric !
So I must pause. Now do, for the sake of the hallowed
memories of the past, my dear sister, if you care nothing or
expect nothing in the future, write me one of your old-fashioned
letters. Let the abundance of your heart speak out.

" Very sincerely still, as of yore under the moonlit trees
of ( Salem/ your most affectionate brother,

" CLEMENT.

" Mrs. Mary E. Vallandigham, New Ark, Delaware.

"P. S. — How is c Jimmy Laird '? I would be delighted
to see him. Tell him he must study hard and be a good boy,
so that he may be useful and make his mark in the world for
good when he grows up."

New Lisbon is one of the most beautiful towns in the State
of Ohio. Regularly laid out and compactly built, it presents
the appearance of a little city. On the south and the west
are hills so lofty that they might almost be called mountains.
Along the foot of these hills flows a beautiful stream — one of
the forks of the Beaver. There is also a considerable acclivity
to the north, on which part of the town is built, though
the principal part is nestled in the valley. The town is health
ful, the people refined, intelligent and social, and the scenery
charming.

The Eev. Clement Vallandigham was one of the first
settlers of the place — made it his permanent residence in
1807. He purchased a few acres at the west end of Walnut
street, just on the edge of the village, and erected a comfort
able brick house. Additions to it were afterwards made, and
now it is a large and commodious mansion. Here his children
and many of his grandchildren were born. The site is hand
some, and surrounded as it is with fruit trees and ornamental

/

468 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

trees and shrubbery, it is an attractive, a delightful place.
To this, the Old Homestead, his son Clement was warmly
attached, as were also all the members of the family. " Beau
tiful for situation," a home of peace and piety and love and
happiness, where for years father and mother and seven
children dwelt together in harmony — he often refers to it
in his letters in terms of warmest affection. His feelings on
revisiting this place are depicted in the following extracts from
letters addressed to his brother James : —

\
" NEW LISBON, July 31, 1849.

" My Dear Brother : — To-day mother received sister B,/,s
letter, and though I wrote to you just before I left Dayton,
yet inasmuch as I feel in a writing mood, I have determined
not to delay for an answer. We left D. on Thursday,
July 19, 1849, and arrived that night by rail at Sandusky
City, where we remained till morning, when we took the lake-
boat for Cleveland, and arriving there about noon, rested till
Monday morning, at which time we left in the stage for
Lisbon. About early dawn on Tuesday morning, the 24th,
we entered by the Salem road the old familiar town, and
roused the family from their slumbers, and were happy to find
them all well. For several days we kept within doors
recruiting, and purging our systems of the pestilent effects
of the cholera atmosphere. Now we are both in good health
and spirits. The weather is fine, and I have been about for
several days visiting the haunts of my childhood and youth.
The contrast between the close and noisome atmosphere of the
cholera regions and the pure and bracing air of this place has
quite exhilarated me. Something, too, is owing to the power
of early recollections and old associations. The home of my

birth and childhood is very dear to me But very

many, indeed nearly all of those who once made this place
dear and pleasant, are gone ; some dead, some removed — all

gone But how lovely are these dear old hills, these

sweet green fields, these pleasant valleys ! every blade of grass
and every old tree has some dear association connected with it.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 469

The beams of the morning sun shine nowhere so sweetly, and
his setting rays bring on the mild shades of evening nowhere
so softly, as viewed from this dear old Homestead. It is a,
dear, a lovely spot, not merely from the many and sweet recol
lections and associations in memory which cluster round it,
but because nature has really made it and the hills, streams,
fields, forests and valleys around very beautiful. It is now
night, and while I am writing at the window of the old
6 South Room/ the moonbeams are falling quietly through the
leaves of the trees, whose shadows sleep so softly on the green
grass of the ' front yard.' The crickets, lineal descendants, no
doubt, of their ancestors who chirped so plaintively in our
boyhood's ears, are still chiming the old accustomed song.
The trees have grown so much that they almost obscure the
house entirely from view from the street ; but yet there is little
change here, except that some of the happy inmates of this
house are absent — one, the revered and beloved father, guide
and protector of us all, sleeps in death. This is brother
George's birthday: Sabbath was mine. It is something to
pass one's thirtieth birthday in the same house and the same
room where born, and receive there the blessing of the same
mother. To-day I revisited some of the places around here
endeared by early recollections. Day after day I look with
pleasure on the beauties of the scenery which surrounds me,

for all is indeed beautiful I hope your wishes may be

gratified, and that you may be restored to this your old home.
Though much out of repair, it is one of the most beautifully
situated and sweetest places in tho world."

In the summer of 1851 he again visited his old home, and
thus writes to the same brother : —

" THE OLD HOMESTEAD, NEW LISBON,

"Thursday, July 17, 1851.

"My Very Dear Brother : — I promised you, some eighteen
months ago, a long, long letter, and week after week have
designed to redeem the promise. But as I used to tell dear
sister Mary, e the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of
•riches ' have caused me, day by day, to put it off. I now be
gin, but whether I shall be able to spin it out to the < cousti-

470 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

tutional length/ I cannot say. But I will write till I get
through. Hereafter I shall make no such promises, for it has
clearly prevented me from writing several shorter ones long
ago. . . . Though I have been negligent of writing, I assure
you I have thought of you and yours every day with the kind
liest affection. And indeed you do not know how I have
grieved over our long and distant separation, and how glad I
should — and hope I shall — be when we shall be brought
closer together. It is now nearly six years since we ceased to
be residents of the same place, and though we have met several
times since, yet our intercourse has of necessity been much
limited. I would we might all be together once more even for
a little — much more, that we could live again in the same
place and be brothers as of yore. But as this can hardly be,
how rejoiced I would feel if we could be nearer at least ! If
you prefer it, I hope some way will yet be opened up — and
soon too — for your return to this place. Though in view of
the course of life which I feel impelled to pursue, I am un
willing to live here myself, and presume I never shall, yet I
love it dearly. There is scarce 'an object around me which is
not entwined with the very tendrils of my heart — not a sight
or sound which does not call up a thousand pleasing, though
it may be melancholy recollections. I have now been here
nearly two weeks, and everything is as beautiful and dear to
me as ever. The sunbeams gild these hills as brightly, and
the shadows fall as gently over these valleys, and the moon
light sleeps as sweetly under these trees, as they did ' in life's
morning march/ I write in the ( South Eoom ; ; but the trees
are now grown so thick in number and foliage that the street
can scarce be seen from the window. The old cherry-tree is
fuller of fruit than for now just seventeen years — 1833. The
old locust is now much higher than the house — the orchard
just as it was, but many new trees have grown up in the front
yard. The stable looks almost too dilapidated to be venerable;
the pump, oven, and wash-house show, too, the marks of age.
The meadow has just been 'mowed and yielded much hay.
The trees in the fields around are about as they were ; but that
beautiful grove, < Potter's "Woods/ hallowed by a\thousand
sweet recollections, has at last with, profane and |£eathenish
barbarity, and in the worst spirit of ^vandalising beeri*cut ,down
entirely. I feel like David of old, as "if -'the heathen!had"come

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 471

into our heritage/ They have certainly denied one of < God's
first temples/ Other objects, and especially that beautiful out
line of hills and woods which surround the town on the west,
south, and east, remain the same ; nor must I forget ( Hepner's
Hollow/ How many a quiet Sabbath evening have I watched
from the window the lengthening shadows falling gently upon
its sides ! And the water murmurs as sweetly through it
' over the enameled stones/ as in my boyhood's days. Verily,
these are ' chosen seats/ and I have wandered over them by
the hour repeating the lines I believe I have often quoted be
fore — Hie illius arma: his currus fuit, &c. Juvat ire ad
castra : Hie acies solebat certare : hie manus Dolopum. I can
never forget them. Like the dying Argive, hither will I turn
my eyes as they search for the last time for earth and earth-
born objects, et dulces moriens reminiscetur Argos. Nor can I
forget that whatever, if any, of good and merit there is about
me, was here acquired under the precept and example of our
noble and excellent parents, one of whom, God be praised, yet
survives. This, too, was the scene of my early ambition and
studies, of early struggles and ea£ly triumphs. This, you
remember, was my room. I see here still the mottoes which
ten years ago I wrote upon the wall — 'Amor Patrice' — 'Sem
per memor qui sis ' — ( Quisque suce fortunes faber,' and the
words of the dying Roman matron, ' Pacte, non dolet? But
there are also endearing ties here common to us all. There is
an odor of sanctity about this house. It is a house of prayer,
and for forty years the incense of devotion has gone up to
heaven from its hearths. I feel that it is good for me to be
here."

The following letter exhibits the deep and tender sympathy
he felt for his friends in time of trouble, and his earnest efforts
to comfort and encourage them. His eldest brother had
changed his profession, and as a consequence found it necessary
to leave the' Old Homestead and seek a new field of labor in
his new profession, and was for a time unsettled. The old
home was then rented to strangers, and there were apprehen
sions that it might pass entirely out of the possession of the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

family, a calamity which they all greatly deprecated. Under
these circumstances he thus-ifcrites to his sister-in-law : —

"NEW LISBON, 7th June, 1846.

My very dear Sister : — Your letter to sister Margaret was
received yesterday,. and though between love, war, politics and
court I never was so busy in my life, I cannot refrain writing
to you. I am so sorry that circumstances were such that you
could not have come home and spent the time with us. I
sympathise most warmly, earnestly with you in your present
unsettled, wandering life. It almost makes my heart bleed ;
indeed I couldn't help shedding a few tears over your letter,
and exclaiming, God bless the dear Mary ! Do you remember
one bright moonlight night when we were young, in Snow
Hill, on the east porch at ' Salem/ (ah me, all gone, long,
long ago !) I promised to be a brother to you ? Well, I have
been and am yet, and mean to be till death. I often love to
think of the happy hours wre used to see on the 'Eastern
Shore/ and at home too. How often we sat in your upper
porch anfl. on the front siSps, or walked in the orchard in the
Sabbath evenings (this too is a Sabbath evening ; looks just
like some of the evenings of former years — but I must write
to you.) I have just returned from a walk past the old spot.
Oh, how sad I felt to think that the fire on the old family hearth
had gone out, and that strangers trod the rooms where we so
often sat, and that I could no more enter the olden mansion or
walk over the grounds, and call it 'home/ Yet the grass
and the trees are as green, and the front yard as pretty, and the
flowers as bright as when it was home. But let us pass by these
things. I cannot be sad long. I sing in my heart, ' Come
again, bright days, come again/ and they are 'almost here.
Do not despair, dear sister. Courage, courage ; brighter pros
pects are before you, better days are in store. The wilderness
is almost passed, Jordan is at your feet ; from Pisgah do you
not see the land flowing with milk and honey ? Do not repine :
the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but the
Son of man, the only and well-beloved Son of the ' Father in
Heaven/ had not where to lay His head. "What a lesson of
resignation and patience and fortitude ! "

But words of kindness and sympathy on the part of Mr.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 473

Vallandigham were not the only evidences of affection for his
relatives and friends. "When opportunity offered, or necessity
called for it, he promptly and to the full measure of his ability
granted substantial aid. His father died in 1839, leaving a
widow and seven children — three of them minors — Clement,
and a younger brother and sister. For thirty-two years he
had labored diligently and faithfully in his calling, but the
estate he left was small. His salary, like that of his brethren
in the ministry generally, had always been inadequate ; by in
dustry and economy however, teaching his children himself, and
they assisting each other, he managed to give them all a good
education. This was all he could do. At his death, the support
of the family devolved in a good measure on the eldest son ;
and when after some years he left the bar, entered the ministry
and removed to a distant field of labor, Clement, who in the
meantime had finished his education, studied his profession and
entered upon its practice, assumed his place, and till Ins death
faithfully performed the duty thus thrown upon him. Before
he was able to buy a home for himself he purchased one for
his mother, borrowing money for the purpose. To this he refers
in the following letters to his mother and his brother James : —

"DAYTON, Sept. 3, 1851.

"My Dearest Dear Mother: — Your most welcome letter came
this moment, and I assure you I am very thankful to you for
•writing. I think of you and of you all every day. The
pleasure which the praise I receive throughout the State gives
you, my dearest mother, is a far higher gratification to me than
the praise itself; and so far as I deserve it, to you and to my
dear departed father under Providence the merit is clue. Under
your roof, around your hearth-stone, from your lips and
his, I learned those things, praise for which I most highly
value. And I unite most fervently with you in the wish that

474 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

I may find a name and a place among the chosen of God.
Meantime it is my earnest prayer daily that I may not forget
that ' riches and honor ; come from Him. I am very glad to
hear that you are so well and so comfortable so far, and if I
can possibly be in New Lisbon this fall I will certainly go ; but
if not, I will not forget you. I hope to meet you often again.
Tell my clear sister Margaret to be of good cheer, remembering
always that David has said that he had been young but was
now old, yet he had never seen the righteous forsaken or his
children begging bread. All will come right in good time ;
light will dawn when and where least expected.

"... So the property will be sold ; but so much the better
perhaps ; for if I can make the arrangement to get the money
in the way and on the terras I spoke of, I will buy it myself. If
not, I will provide you a most comfortable place to live in in
any event ; though I would for your sake, dearest mother, and
my own and the sake of all of us, a thousand times prefer to
keep the old place for you. And I will do all which I can do
safely; and I know my mother desires no more."

From the letter which follows it will be seen that he suc
ceeded in securing a home for his mother, and the one which
above all others she preferred — the Old Homestead. In this
she lived many years — to the close of her life — her daughters
living with her. He was accustomed to pay her an annual
visit, and as long as she lived he provided cheerfully and
liberally for her wants and lovingly ministered to her comfort,
and when she died he continued the same kind care to the
members of her family £hat survived.

To his brother James : —

'•DAYTON, December 22d, 1851.

" . . . Upon these considerations alone it was that I pur
chased the property. I do not expect ever to occupy it myself.
I bought it as a home for my mother while she lives. I desire
that she and my sisters, and Mr. R. and family (if she wishes
it) shall occupy it ; and I do not expect to receive anything

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 475

for it except in the way of taxes and repairs — perhaps not
even that — though I shall pay the interest upon the purchase
money every year myself. This is the utmost I can do, for
though my practice is becoming lucrative, I have nothing else
to depend on. "We live ourselves very plainly, exercising still
no small self-denial. But we have seen worse times, having,
since we came to Dayton, suffered many privations and seen
some sore affliction. Yet we suffered all in silence, and no one
knew of it. Times are now changed, and by denying myself
luxuries, I can render aid to those who have so strong a claim
upon me ; and above all to her to whom I owe so much, and
who through the wearisome months and years of infancy and
childhood watched over and protected me in my helplessness."

We feel a delicacy in introducing these private family
matters, but it is rendered necessary from the fact that in the
wild excitement of 1861, and again in the violent political
campaign of 1863, the charge of neglect of his aged mother
was alleged against him — a charge that was utterly ground
less, and one that he resented more indignantly than any other
that had ever been made.

The following letter published at the time will sufficiently
indicate the nature of the charge and the manner in which it
was disposed of. It is addressed to a Republican editor^, in
whose paper the slanderous article had appeared : —

ARK, DEL., July 24, 1861.

"Sir: — My attention has been called to an article in your
paper of last Saturday, which demands some notice from me.
I mean the article in reference to my brother, the Hon. C. L.
Vallandigham, member of Congress from the Third District
of Ohio. The article in question purports to be an extract
from a letter from a gentleman of the Dayton district, and
contains a most atrocious calumny on my brother, as well as
allusions to my aged and venerable mother of a highly offen
sive character.

" Who the author is I do not know, but I assert that the

476 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM.

charge he brings is without the slightest foundation in truth;
is indeed precisely the reverse of what is true. Even the im
material allegations he makes are false, evincing total ignorance
in reference to the matter of which he writes, or utter reckless
ness. ' He speaks of my mother as a member of the Presby
terian Church at Dayton; whereas she was never within a
hundred miles of Dayton in her life. My father, the Rev.
Clement Vallandigham, was for thirty-two years pastor of the
Presbyterian Church of New Lisbon, Ohio.

" It is there his widow lives, and has lived for more than
fifty years. And I assert what I know to be the fact, that she
is now, and has been for years, maintained by this same son
whom your correspondent so basely defames. And a kinder
and more affectionate son can nowhere be found. He supports
her most cheerfully ; it affords him pleasure to minister to her
wants, and make her comfortable. She occupies as good a
house, I have no doubt, as your correspondent, and is in all
respects in as comfortable circumstances, and in as little danger
or fear of want in the future, as he.

"And all this is provided by this same son, who has a
family of his own to support beside, and whose means are
comparatively limited, who earns his daily bread by his daily
labor. Whatever may be said of my brother's political course
(and in this I know he is as honest and conscientious as any
man in the country), all who are acquainted with him can
testify to the purity and integrity of his private character.

" Trusting that you will insert this in your paper, and thus
in a measure counteract the injury done by the article referred
to, " I am yours, &c.,

" J. L. VALLANDIGHAM."

The foregoing letter sufficiently answers the charge of neg
lect ; but we go further, and affirm that so far from being guilty
of any neglect, he was distinguished for very warm affection to
his mother, and for earnest and constant effort to promote her
comfort : and in proof of this we will make brief extracts from
a number of his letters : —

« DAYTON, March 11/53.

"My Dear Mother: — I have not time to-day to write you

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 477

a long letter. Yours of the 3d instant was very welcome, and
affected me much. I hope you may live many years longer in
health and strength, and that goodness and mercy will here
after as heretofore follow you all your days — - all your ways
being pleasantness, and all your paths peace. I cannot do too
much for you : all I have done or can do is but as the small
dust of the balance."

To the same : —

"DAYTON, Nov. 22, 1853.

" . . . I trust you will spend the winter pleasantly. Do
take good care of your health; and do not deny yourself a
single comfort — nor my dear sisters. I am still highly pros
pered, and able, and I thank God willing and anxious to do
all I can."

To the same : —

"DAYTON, March 8, 1855.

" My Dearest Mother: — Inasmuch as I have been most
abundantly prospered above any former period of my profes
sional life, within the last five or six weeks, please accept the
inclosed as a testimonial of my ever grateful sense of the many
obligations I am under to you, and which I more and more
feel that I shall never be able to repay."

To the same:—

" DAYTON, June 28,M856.

"... But never be uneasy, I have always plenty to supply
all your wants ; and it would distress me sorely to think that
you ever felt uneasy or unhappy about it. God in His kind
Providence blesses me still in basket and in store. I bless His
holy name night and morning, and at all times, for His loving
kindness and tender mercies. I am very anxious to see you
again, and will spend all my spare time in Lisbon . this

summer."

Mr. Vallandigham never had much command of money ;
and we make this statement in justice to his character. _ Some

478 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of his friends sometimes thought that he was not as liberal as
he ought to be in contributions to meet political expenses of
his party, even in his own campaigns. The reason was, he
had not money of his own, and he would not use that of others-
The purchase of a home for his mother, and afterwards of a
house for himself, kept him in debt for sixteen years. And
when that debt was paid, the support of his family and the aid
which he felt bound to render to others who were dependent
upon him absorbed the whole of his income. He never made
anything by politics. "When in the Legislature of Ohio, and
afterwards in Congress, the salary attached to his office was all
that he received. His hands were never denied with a bribe.
Pecuniarily as well as in all other respects, he was a man of the
strictest honesty and integrity.

In January, 1848, he lost his first-born son, then his only
child. His tender love for the child and deep '[ grief at the
bereavement are depicted in the following letter to his brother
James : —

"DAYTON, January 31, 1848.

"My Very Dear Brother : — Although this is the day which
I 'generally devote to the writing of editorial, yet I have delayed
so long to reply to your letters, now three in number unan
swered, that I feel as if I should delay no longer. Mary's
letter to Louisa came also a few days ago. It was a dear,
comforting letter, and we feel truly grateful for the kindness
and sympathy which you feel for us. I cannot now tell you
all the circumstances attending the death of our dear cherub.
It was very sudden and unexpected, and crushed our hearts to
the very ground. My dear little boy was just beginning to
notice objects fully, and every day twined him more closely
round our hearts. He was the joy of our family hearth : the
very fire burned brighter from his presence ; and bright visions
of the future connected with him every day sprang up in my
imagination. And this is the sting of my grief now. I do

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 479

not meet a little boy on the street but my heart bleeds, every
wound streams afresh. O my Willie, my own dear boy ! It
was not permitted to me to see my precious child grow up.
His disease was violent and soon reached the fatal point, but
his death was lingering : it seemed almost as if he did not
want to leave us. And this was the bitterness of death — to
see his long struggle with the monster ; to behold him cling
thus to life and yet have no power to save him ; to watch his
dear, sweet, precious frame sink, and his once bright smiling
eye grow dim hour by hour. Oh, may you never lose a child !
But at last his breath parted so gently that we could hardly
tell that he was gone. But it was so : my poor dear boy was
no more. We buried him on a beautiful knoll in the ceme
tery, and between two little trees. There he sleeps quietly, un
knowing of his poor father's grief. I mean to have a little
marble monument put over his grave (the only land I own on
earth), with his name ' "Willie y inscribed, and the words, ' Of
such is the Kingdom of Heaven/ Louly's grief was terrible,
and the scene of her parting with his corpse heart-rending
beyond description; but she is now for the most part calm and
resigned. Everybody was as kind as if we were their nearest
relatives : I never lived among or even visited such a people
before. Mr. Anderson was an especial comfort to us ; he is an
extraordinary man. But nothing enabled me to bear up under
the affliction except the firm conviction that though we saw
not how, it was for the best, and that He who orders all things
aright required our babe of us. He had given, and He now
took away. After having thus passed through the fiery furnace
ourselves, we are prepared to sympathise most deeply with
Mary in her affliction. I heard of Mrs. Kobins' death with
real sorrow.

"As to the plan proposed by Mr. R. I am sorry to see you
go away so far; it is very hard indeed. I had hoped that we
might yet live in the same place ; I hope so yet. The offer is
a tempting one, yet there are some serious objections which. I
foresee. Still if you think it for the best, go with our blessing.
I almost weep to think that our family, once so closely bound
together, inmates of the same house, seated all around the same
fireside, are already so widely separated. Oh that we could
pass through the brief journey of life near together! What
would we not have given to have had you all with us in our
late affliction ! "

480 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Mr. Vallandigham's social qualities were of a high order.
He was exceedingly popular with the masses. Young men who
studied in his office became warmly attached to him. Men
connected with him in business, or who mingled with him
socially, esteemed and loved him. The editor of the Manchester
(Ohio) Democrat thus attests the truth of these declarations : —

" When Mr. Vallandigham was one of the editors and pro
prietors of the Dayton Ledger, more than two years ago, we
were employed on that paper, and met him almost every day.
We have therefore perhaps had a better opportunity of an ac
quaintance with the man's private life and social disposition
than any of our cotemporaries in this portion of the State.
From personal knowledge we can say that a more upright,
noble and honorable private life can be accredited to no man.
At home, his worst political enemies were often his devoted
personal friends. His almost unparalleled colloquial powers
made him always companionable, and his attractive manners
and easy conversation won the friendship of his opponents. To
meet him was to become his friend at once. It has been said
that Vallandigham was unpopular. However this may be,
where he was best known he was best liked. No one could
know him personally and be his enemy. He was no respecter
of persons, and would converse with as much interest with the
poor man as with the rich — he respected the high and the low
alike. Possibly this was the secret of his popularity at home.
His ambitions and aspirations were all of the most elevated
character, and his thoughts were of the loftiest order.'7

Similar is the testimony of Mr. Dunifer, of the Germantown
Dollar Times. He says : —

" We personally, intimately knew him as a loving friend, a
kind and courteous preceptor. We entered his office as a
student, and the many acts of kindness and fatherly advice en
deared him to us as no other living man. To speak of his
virtues, we would know not where to begin or where to end, so
numerous were his good qualities of head and heart. One extra
ordinary trait of his character was his unequaled firmness. . . .

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 481

He never faltered, for his own moral courage was absolutely
boundless, and when he felt himself to be right he was as un
swerving as Truth itself. . . . With an imposing presence and
a manner singularly sweet and gentle, he possessed the most un
daunted courage. His sympathies were always with the masses,
his memory is embalmed with their tears/'

The Eev. F. T. Brown, D. D., in the same communication
from which we have already quoted, thus testifies to his social
qualities : —

" . . . We did not meet again for seven years, when I was
a preacher, and he was a rising lawyer and politician. I had
been licensed but was not yet settled, when quite unexpectedly
I was put in charge of the First Presbyterian Church of Dayton,
Ohio, to supply it for six months during the absence of its
pastor. Mr. Vallandigham lived there then, and was a member
of the congregation to which I ministered. His wife was a
member of the church ; and some years later he also became a
member. Our old friendship was renewed, and we had some
pleasant times together in his modest little home. He was
still comparatively a poor man, but lived within his means, and
held his head as high as the wealthiest and most aristocratic of
them all in that aristocratic place. I can recall no particular
memories of his life at that time, except the general impression
made on me that he was very ambitious, and was giving too
much attention to politics. He was still the same frank, genial,
pleasant gentleman and pure-minded man I had always known
him."

It may not be amiss here to give some description of the
personal appearance of Mr. Vallandigham for the benefit of
those who never saw him. An Englishman writing from
Niagara Falls, thus describes him : —

" A more thorough gentleman in manner, appearance, and
language it would not be easy to find ; certainly it would be
difficult to get many such among those who assail him so bit
terly. He is a man of medium height and build, fresh in

31

482 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

complexion — that freshness which betokens health — and
exceedingly intelligent-looking, without that massiveness of
brain which frequently, though not always, accompanies great
intellectual power. Exceedingly amiable in disposition, he is
respected by all who know him. Refined in manner arid lan
guage, he impresses you on the instant as few American poli
ticians impress you. Were I to describe him in a word, not
knowing his native country, I would say he was an English
gentleman of good education and training, of great probity,
and much more than an average share of ability and political
acquirements. A schemer, even in politics, I could not con
ceive him to be."

But perhaps the most concise and accurate personal de
scription of him is the following from a Southern paper,
written in May 1863 :—

"Whilst in Shelby ville, I seized the opportunity of seeing
Mr. Vallandigham. Without impertinently intruding upon
that distinguished man, I heard him converse for an hour or
so upon one topic and another. His manner has nothing
studied or affected ; he speaks without effort or hesitation, and
his face bears a permanent expression of good-humor and
friendship. His eyes are blue, full, and look right into yours ;
and whilst they beam with vivacity and intelligence, there is an
earnest honesty in them which has won your regard and admi
ration before you know it. His complexion is florid, his nose
rather hooked (Roman), chin and lips well chiseled and firm,
teeth strong and white ; hair and whiskers dark chestnut and
close trimmed ; height about five feet ten ; his frame is
robust, compact, and graceful. Altogether he is certainly a
man of extraordinary mental and physical vigor; of great
natural abilities improved by cultivation, combining impulse
with deliberation, and enthusiasm with remorseless determina
tion of purpose."

The following letters show that Mr. Vallandigham was a
loving husband and a fond father — clearly indicate that
though called a. man of ' iron mould/ he had a very warm and
.affectionate heart : — »

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 483

" NEW YORK HOTEL, NEW YOEK CITY,

"June 1st, 1862.

" My Very Dear Wife : — Just opposite my window I see
through the glass a most charming sight — a little boy, just
about Charlie's age and size, neatly dressed, and bright-eyed
and with a bright glowing face, is kissing his mother who stoops
down that he may reach her. Both are standing by the
window looking out upon the rain. Now she stoops down
not quite low enough, and he jumps up, over and over again,
and kisses her, and now she puts her arm round his little neck
and hugs him fast. How sweet a picture ! and yet to me how
saddening too, for my dear darling little man and his dear
mother are far away. I am homesick, homesick — a disease
not treated of in the medical books or recognised by the
faculty. And yet it is a sore and wearisome malady, and for
it there is neither balm nor physician. ' 'Tis home where'er
the heart is/ and my heart is in my Dayton home. As I
advance in the vale of years, blessed be God it becomes dearer
to me ; and as I am tried in the fiery ordeal of this terrible
Revolution, and they begin to call me a man of ' iron mould/
thank God again, the tenderer my heart becomes. So I pray
may it ever be. My friends who have never seen me think
me an elderly man of large frame and stern aspect, and my
enemies something less only than a monster. How little they
dream how young I am, and how that my heart melts and
tears flow from my eyes as if I were a woman many and
many a time, as the Angel of Sadness troubles the pool of
sorrow or affection. Be it so; u after some time be past'
they may understand me better."

To his son Charlie, eight years old : —

"WASHINGTON CITY, Dec. 16, 1862.
" My Very Dear, Darling Little Boy :• — I received both of
your letters. They pleased me so much. I am sometimes,
indeed every day, very homesick. It is a hard thing for me to
be separated from mother and you so long ; but public duty
requires it. When you grow up you will wonder at the
strange times in which your father lived and acted. I want
you to go on with your studies. Read and write slowly and
accurately. Make your letters all well formed. Take your

484 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

time to it. Draw slowly too. I will send you some specimens ;
also a copy-book. But above all, be a good boy. Obey your
mother ; be gentle and kind to all around you. Be honorable ;
be just. My dear boy, your papa cannot tell you how much
he loves you, so do nothing to grieve him. Give much love
to mother and aunty, and all. Good-bye, and may God bless
you, my darling boy. Most affectionately,

" YOUR FATHER."

The following interesting scenes in the social and domestic
life of Mr. Vallandigham are from the pen of his cousin, Mrs.
Lila Laird Egbert, wife of Dr. Augustus R. Egbert, of
the United States Army. Her father, the Rev. Robert M.
Laird, was a brother of Mr. Vallandigham's mother : —

" My recollections of my cousin Clement begin in my early
childhood. I was only a little girl when he came to our home

in C , Pennsylvania, stopping for a few days with us on his

way from Maryland. It was a gloomy autumn evening long-
ago, but I remember well how much brightness and life seemed
to have come in with the blithe, handsome young student as we
sat round the fire together. He was so young then, ' life's morn
ing march ? lay all before him, and his heart was full of faith
and hope. I can see my cousin as he looked then, erect and
graceful in figure, the dark hair swept back from his brow so
high and white, his eyes a deep clear blue, his cheeks lit with
beautiful bloom, and his whole countenance beaming with ex
pression and intelligence. ' Such a bright face!' said my grand
mother, who was given to be rather critical ; ' your cousin has
indeed a "morning face," no shadows upon it.'

" Just as I wrote the above sentence my eyes fell upon a
little picture of Clement which is near me, a likeness of him
taken in later years, when life had become a conflict, and he
had girded on his armor and proved himself ' a hero in the
strife/ This is not quite the ' morning face7 with which my
cousin rises from f the sea of remembrance ' as I think of that
long-ago autumn visit; there are shadows on it now, yet they
are 'but the shadows which set forth the brightness of the noon/
The light of the eyes is as beautiful and true as ever, and faith
and courage, tried," matured, are in their depths; the brow is

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 485

more thoughtful, and round the mouth are lines of resolution
and earnestness, telling of contests fought and won. It is a
noble, good face, the face of one who was not afraid 'to do the
right, and do it like a man/

"But this is a digression, and I resume my memories.
During that visit, so full of sunny hours, I learned to know,
child as I was, the charm of my cousin's sympathy. He was
never indifferent to my sister and myself. Our childish
thoughts and hopes never wearied him, and he entered into our
amusements with a zest which made him perfectly delightful
to us. He had hopes and plans for the future, and, as I long
afterward learned, much at that very time to occupy and press
upon his mind, but he would not let that mar the holiday we
all were having. He would not send away the two little girls
who climbed on his chair and hung around him, eagerly claim
ing his time and attention, and ' for the nonce ' he made him
self a merry-hearted boy. But I remember how earnest he
could be then, and ( pass from gay to grave 7 when the occasion
came. One evening, just at the close of a grand frolic, chest
nut-roasting at the glowing open fire, J. M came in to

talk with Clement. He was also a young law-student, and
much interested in politics, and very soon the two drifted upon
that subject. Of course I remember nothing of their talk,
excepting this (and I never could forget it). J. said in reply to
some remark Clement had made, 'Well, I shall be a politician
just so far as it will bring me in " the loaves and fishes," and
I shall trim my sails accordingly, and float with the smoothest
current/ with something else to that effect. Clement sprang
to his feet, his blue eyes flashing and the color deepening in
his cheek. 'I too/ he said in a deep low voice, 'shall be a poli
tician ; but I shall be a patriot, God helping me, and true to
my conscience and to principle. Yes, I would rather lose favor
and riches a hundredfold than lose my honesty and honor.7
How grand and roused he looked when he said that, his eyes
beaming, his whole face eloquent with noble indignation ! I
watched him almost in awe, but admiring his brave, true words,
though J. laughed and said something about e all that being
romance which time would cure/ And were those impassioned
words but the utterance of ' a romance ' which time was to
cure? Let my cousin's record answer. I was but a child when
I heard him speak them, and I have lived to see them proved,

486 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

I have read their fulfilment. Through shadow and storm, fierce
trials and conflicts abounding, he stood 'true to conscience and
to principle/ The young student who spoke out so nobly in
the little fire-side circle that long-gone autumn evening, made
each word sure and good in after-life. In his grand, brave
manhood his heart did but beat to its ancient early faith when
he said, ' Do right and trust to God, and truth, and the people ;
perish office, perish honors, perish life itself, but do the thing
that is right, and do it like a man.' . . .

" It was several months after my cousin Clement's visit to
C. that I formed the design of writing to him. My mother
did not encourage me. I was so young, and she thought a
child's letter could not interest a young man just becoming im
mersed in his profession. Still, when she found I was so much
in earnest, she consented. I had to put a great book upon the
chair to make me high enough for the writing-desk ; and armed
with a new pen and a tiny sheet of paper, I wrote my first
letter to Clement. It was a foolish little epistle, written in a
stiff, unformed hand, and full of childish fancies and expres
sions. My mother smiled as she read it, and told me ' not to
expect a reply, it was hardly possible one would come/ But
my letter was sent, and despite the warnings of my family, who
laughed at ' little L. and her letter/ I did expect a reply, and
it came. My first letter ! how proud I was of it, and well I
might be ! It was beautiful ; so full of kindness, tenderness,
and most loving appreciation of my poor, queer little letter,
with pleasant bits of wisdom here and there, and closing with
these words : f And now as you are the very first young lady
who has ever been kind enough to write to me, I propose the
correspondence shall continue, not for a time, or times, but
always. Who can tell how much we may help each other ?
You can write me of your studies, and I will aid you in them
where I can; and when I get "blue," and tired of musty law-
books, and "life's jarring round/' I shall look to your simple
and affectionate letters to amuse and cheer me — as I know they
will if they are only like this, bright with the promise of a
silk watch-chain ivhen you learn the stitch, and a velvet heart
pin-cushion, and graphic with such stirring adventures as your
sledding frolic.' I knew my cousin was laughing at me, but
his letter was so good and kind I could not fail to answer it,
and so began our correspondence, full of interest and benefit to

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 487

me — yes, ever counted as one of the good gifts of my life.
I think of my dear cousin's kindness with deepest affection^
Few men indeed, immersed in business as Clement was, aujjr
with life's cares gathering round them, would do as he did,
take the time and thought to write long replies to the crude
childish letters of a little girl. Ever trying to help me and
lead me onward as I grew up, he was my patient, dear, wise
counsellor. I owe my cousin much for his faithful, never
failing interest in my mental culture. His letters always did
me good ; arid it was of no light importance to a fatherless,
brotheiiess, inexperienced girl as I was, to share from child
hood the correspondence and counsels of Clement L. Yallandig-
ham. I will give you an extract from one of those valued
letters ; they are all so wise and beautiful, it is like ' choosing
gems where all are goodly/ This was written soon after I left
school, and was to me indeed 'words fitly spoken — apples of
gold ia pictures of silver ; :

" f You have written and spoken much of Miss , admir
ing her with all the warmth of a youthful enthusiastic nature.

I know Miss , and esteem her a very graceful writer; but

my dear young cousin, if you would seek a model, look higher.
Look to the Cornelias and Portias of remote times, the noble
women whose names live on- the page of history. Amongst
them, " shining as a fair star of no fitful light," is Lady Rachel
Russel. She was fearless and brave in duty's path ; yet the
gentler feminine graces, without which a woman is not true to
herself and to her God, were hers. She was a patriot, and
what is far more, she was a Christian. Get her life and letters
and read them. Her character is perhaps one of the finest on
record. Indeed, my clear L., I am your brother ; and with your
self, I very greatly regret I cannot be more with you to assist
you in your studies, and to give the mite of my experience to
aid in your guidance. I will send you ere long a list of some
books I would like you to read. Just now I write in haste, and
shall only give a few general words of advice. Read history,
biography, works of travel, and of standard fiction, both prose
and poetry : but above all read and study the Bible ; it is the
wisest, purest book for any human heart to search. As to
novels, more of them again ; but flee ' red and yellow backed
literature/ sensational trash, as you would the plague. I would
like you to read history much ; it is one of the most liberalising

488 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

of all studies in its action upon the mind and soul, for it is the
record of men and events remote, and free in a great degree
jfcom the prejudice and the selfish influence of present interest
and times. Acquaint yourself well with the history of your
own country ; its pages are bright with heroism and noble
deeds. Every woman should be a patriot, though not a par
tisan ; and I am glad to see you feel this. Though your school
days are ended, your studies are not over; they are just begin
ning. Do not say you have " no time ; " there is always time
and a way for what a resolute will undertakes. But you must
learn to economise your time, and divide it so wisely that one
thing may be done at a time, and this will make you thorough
in all you do. Forgive me if I seem in a " mood monitory "
this morning; but we be of one blood, my cousin, and I am
the older of the two, and have studied the world and the
tilings of the world more, though I trust not " loved them too
well."'

" I here close this extract to give you from my ' written
treasures ' another quotation, though in a different vein, ,and
Written in later years. You, my dear cousin, whose heart lay
so near our dear Clement, knew well his deep true love for
nature, and shared it too, I may add — and you will enjoy his
eloquent beautiful utterances, as he says :

" ' To your " Woodland Musings " my heart responds most
cordially. Life and its conflicts cannot chill my warm true
love for nature. Did I tell you of the beautiful views of
Switzerland my friend Mr. B. had brought back with him ?
They are unusually fine. In leisure moments I -delight to
linger over them, feeling deeply all their charm. And yet they
are only pictures. How I long to see the grand originals ! I
love the mountains ; they elevate and transport me, and " seem
a part of me, and of my being." I love wild scenery ; the
jutting precipice, the foaming torrent, the elevated fir-tree
and the lofty pines ever pointing upward ; and I love the
peaceful valley-lands, over which the blue sky seems to lean
tenderly, where the little grasses and the ferns rejoice, and
where the silver brook makes sweet music as it strays through,
enameled meadows to old ocean. It was a happy, a divine
thought to place Adam in a garden, a sort of " park," such as
Eden must have been. "We have a sweet little home here ; as
I wrote to a friend the other day, it looks like an " Egerian

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 489

grot " nestling amongst the trees and flowers. Still it is not
quite the country — the country, blest of God, loved by
angels, and made for man, cultivated man's special solace and
delight. My heart longs to dwell in its peaceful beauty.
Well, if I ever should attain my " three-score and ten," and
part at least of my dreams for the future be happily realised,
how delighted I shall be " in shades like these," " to crown a
youth of labor with an age of ease." But just now ? Alas !
I am poor and busy — and, "Barbee vs. Giles," and "Telfourd
vs. Morning Star," " soon sank the spark immortal," for we must
live and work, and sometimes let the gentler visions sleep —
only sleep, for a man may be " diligent in business," yet keep his
heart true to nature's loveliness and her great Creator's glory.'

" I will give no more extracts : where all are so beautiful,
how can I choose ? Nor must I linger over delightful meet
ings along life's journey. The memory of 'a summer of
summers ' rises before me when we were all gathered together
at old ' Hazlewood,' and Clement's coining and his dear
presence placed the crown upon our happiness and made our
joy complete.

"Amongst my golden memories of the past is his last visit
to C. before my marriage. Though brief indeed, it was rich with
goodly calk and loving counsels, the remembrance of which
is with me as a blessing. Clement was the older of the two,
and had then been married many years, and his warm heart
with its quick sympathy fully read my hopes and feelings as
I stood upon the threshold of a new life. He had not then
met Dr. E., but he knew him through me. His heart was
warm towards him for my sake, and he was so earnest for our
happiness. How wisely and tenderly he talked : those good
affectionate counsels, could I ever forget them ? Ah, I have
loved to trace the course of their influence in my most happy
married life. I have told my cousin this more than once, and
I think it not unfitting to write it here.

" I have once before spoken of Clement's sympathy as I
knew it in my childhood ; but in later, graver years for us both,
I proved its depth and sincerity. That beautiful unselfish
sympathy, it ever shone so brightly in his character ! When
public life pressed on him, and each hour was filled with occu
pation and care, he never ceased to sympathise with his friends.
His heart never lost its warm tender interest, its sunny trust.

490 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

He was truly brave. His courage was sublime in its faith
and lofty calmness, for he knew no fear; he had no care but to
do right and be true. But though unfaltering courage and
firmness ' kept the portals of his soul/ it glowed with every
generous, gentle sentiment. Each shadow which swept over
his path, though it deepened the resolution of his spirit,
could not change its sweetness and its generosity.

" I recall with peculiar satisfaction a visit from my cousin
Clement one summer's day, when he came up to B. from the
city. He was tired, and heartily glad to be with us once more.
As he much needed rest, no visitors were admitted that after
noon and evening, and we spent some delightful hours in my
mother's quiet room' — Clement on the sofa, and my sister's
little ones about him, for he dearly loved ' the small people.7
' This is what I like/ he said, 'just in a circle of true hearts,
among my "own kin," "the world forgetting, by the \vor Id
forgot/7 and all its dust and noise left outside. This quiet and
rest refreshes my spirit.7 He was charming as ever with genial
talk and loving interest, and we enjoyed every moment of that
cherished visit. I remember the next day as we walked down
the wide paths in the old garden at B., Clement said to me,
and this was after storms of fierce and bitter injustice had
swept over him, ' I have almost had " life's life lied away.77 I
have suffered cruel wrongs, and fought against an antagonism
heated seven times. It has made me stern, and roused all the
defiance of my nature ; but I pray God it may never harden
and embitter my heart, never make me unforgiving.7 And
again he wrote to me, ' Whatever I may be in the contest under
the trumpet's peal, I would be true and gentle and loving in
my home, among my own kindred, my friends. Never would
I disappoint or chill a heart which clung and trusted to me.7
And was he not all this ? Hearts e who trusted and clung to
him/ what is your answer ? Through my falling tears I read

it, and it is written in tears, nor can I trace it here My

sister once said to Clement, ' she regretted that our meetings
came so seldom, she wished he could be more with .us.7 He
looked up with his beautiful smile and replied, ' Never mind,
Cousin M., after awhile we shall all be together always in " the
leal land.77 7 His words noiv return with tender promise. For
to that fair land he has already gone, this ' kinsman beloved.7
Swiftly summoned from loving hearts, from many duties and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 491

many hopes, his grand true life suddenly ceasing, he has put
on ( the robes of immortality/ and entered upon the grander,
truer life ' which is in God.? She whose soul was bound with
his, has followed him with quick step, ' and the days of her
widowhood are forever ended.'

" From the shadow of this great sorrow, lonely hearts, look
up ! See through the mist of tears the stars of promise
shine ! ' In a little while we shall all be together always in
" the leal land." ' In that hope we wait."

CHAPTER XXI.

HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.

A BIOGRAPHY of Clement L. Vallandigham would be
incomplete, indeed would be exceedingly defective, without at
least one chapter on his religious character. He was deeply
imbued with the religious element : this, -recognised in a
measure by all who were acquainted with him, was well known
to his intimate friends. And to this is to be ascribed that
spotless purity of his private life which even his enemies con
ceded. His parents, by both precept and example, endeavored
to train him up in the right way. The home of his childhood
and youth was a home of piety. Every day the morning and
evening incense of prayer and praise ascended from the family
altar. The Sabbath was a holy day : in attendance on the
sanctuary, and in the reading of the Bible and religious books
and papers, all its hours were spent. Nor were they wearisome
hours : in after-years he often referred to these Sabbath scenes
as those on which memory delighted to dwell. But though
deeply imbued with the religious spirit, he never obtruded his
views on others, nor did he make an ostentatious display of
his religious feelings. He made no parade of his piety : it
was " the hidden man of the heart." In a letter to his brother,
which will hereafter appear, he says : . " I am not used to feel
the tender emotions of the soul in public crowds. I am a

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 493

quiet man in my feelings, and it is only in the solitude
and retiracy of my closet that they flow out in genial gushing
streams, or among a few select and well-tried friends and the
bosom of my family."

Nor was he a bigot : no one ever heard him utter an unkind
word of any religious denomination. Though a Protestant,
he had many friends among Catholics to whom he was warmly
attached. In the Jews he evinced a remarkable interest, and
on several occasions when their rights seemed to be ignored or
overlooked, he stood up in their maintenance and defence.

In the following letters his Christian character will be
exhibited in a light which will, we think, be highly gratifying
to his pious friends. To his brother, the Rev. James L. Val-
landigham, he thus writes : —

DAYTON, Ohio, Aug. 21, 1854.

" My Dear Brother : — Your congratulations on the birth
of my son are very gratifying, and I fervently unite with you
in your prayer for his life and usefulness. All this is in the
hands of Divine Providence ; but I fed as if he will live, and
be an ornament and solace to my declining years. I shall do
my part tenderly but with the utmost faithfulness, sparing, by
the favor of God, nothing in precept or by example to
develop, cultivate and direct aright and to the highest per
fection his physical, moral and intellectual faculties

The accidents of childhood are very many, and I sometimes
feel sorely anxious when I look forward to the months and
years yet to come. But I have much faith, and await with
patience also the providence of Him who doeth all things well.
How admirable and how comforting is the doctrine of faith !
If religion were a fable, how profound the knowledge of
human nature and the wisdom of the Apostle who prescribes it
as a cardinal point in the Christian's creed ! Though unhappily
myself but an unregenerate man, I have from earliest boyhood
been sustained and soothed amid a thousand dangers and per
plexities by this also, the anchor of the soul sure and steadfast.

494 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

And the longer I live amid the fearful incertitudes which, the
the farther we advance, still more on every hand surround us,
the more do I find this precious doctrine — among the earliest
which I learned from our dear mother's lips — to be above
all price."

Such appreciation of the importance of faith and such
recognition of Divine Providence are frequently to be found in
his correspondence with his relatives and intimate friends.

The letter, however, in which his religious views and feel
ings are most fully portrayed is that of Feb. 8, 1855, addressed
to the same brother. A few months before, a revival of
religion of great power had occurred in the charge of that
brother, who was pastor of the churches of White Clay Creek,
Head of Christiana, and New Ark, in the State of Delaware,
resulting in an addition of one hundred and fifty persons to
the membership of the Church. He had heard reports of this
revival, felt deeply interested in it, and it is to it he refers in
his letter.

"DAYTON, February 8, 1855.

"My Very Dear Brother: — The paper on which I write
was laid aside for that purpose yesterday; and this morning my
design is quickened and made the more easy of accomplish
ment by the receipt of your timely and most welcome letter of
February the 3d. From cousin Lila's kind and affectionate
letter of December, and also while at Lisbon, I learned of the
signal blessing which has been poured out in overflowing
abundance upon your labors in the ministry. Most heartily
am I rejoiced for your sake. Your years of labor and self-
denial and affliction in the things of this life have been at
length rewarded, not with jewels from the mines of earth,
but with gems precious as is the worth of many souls, and
which shall shine in your coronet forever — bright, not as the
sun, but as that light which radiates from the presence and the
throne of the ever-living God. Unworthy too as I am my
self, needing more the mercies of the Kedeemer and the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 495

graces of the Spirit than any who have found pardon and
peace among you, I rejoice for their sakes also. For years I
have stood like the publican of old 'afar off/ but alas ! unlike
him, too rarely smiting my breast, or desiring mercy upon me
a sinner. Religion has always been much in my thoughts ;
the Bible often my study, sometimes, but how rarely, my de
light; its doctrines and its precepts are to me familiar as house
hold words; attendance upon the sanctuary has been my
habit, and I have even remembered the Sabbath-day, but oh
how seldom have I kept it holy ! The prayers of my child
hood have lingered like the odor of sweet perfume in my mem
ory; my mother's yearnings and my father's precepts have
passed ever before me in the silent watches of the night. The
old homestead and the ancient family-altar, and the rooms
hallowed all over by prayer, and the grave of him who, while
living, compassed about as he was by*poverty and affliction,
yet served and honored God with the constancy and purity
and firmness of a martyr and a saint; and the calm, mild eyes
and countenance of her, full of meekness and faith and piety,
who yet lives to bless and pray for me, have fenced me all
around as with a wall of fire, and guarded me even when I
knew and felt it not. Yet in all this have I not seen God —
visibly, palpably, seen and felt him as my God and Redeemer.
Religion has ever been to me a thing belonging to the future}
a something some day to be sought after, certainly to be sought
after, but — to-morrow. That morrow never came : there was
no such thing in all God's creation to come : and I knew and
realised it not these many years, fool that I was. To-morrow
was ever one day in advance. Yesterday, this day was the
morrow. It came, but it was no longer the morrow, but TO
DAY, with all its terribleness, and it was all that belonged to
me. And yet hardened I my heart; and having eyes, saw not,
and claiming intelligence, realised not so plain a truth. But
I bless God that for some time past, unconsciously at first,
almost without my consent till it was too late to resist, I have
been drawn, I know not how — not by power nor by might, else
my proud spirit had rebelled, but by easy and insensible ap
proaches — I dare not say by grace — to think more and more of
the great concern, the future of the immortal part of my nature.
Not in the earthquake and the storm and the rending of tKe
rocks, but in the midst of health, and mercies and blessings

496 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

more in number than the hairs of my head, a still, small voice
has whispered day and night, at home and abroad, in solitude
and amid the cares and anxieties of business, the hour is come,
the accepted time, the convenient. For the first time in my life
I have listened, unwittingly in the beginning, cheerfully,
pleasurably now, to these whisperings. What it is that has
moved me I know not : I have never felt before as I now do
feel ; and for the first time in four-and-thirty years of a life
time of carelessness and sin, I am RESOLVED by God's grace
and assistance, not my own — I am nothing, less than nothing,
and vanity — to make religion an IMMEDIATE PERSONAL, con
cern from this day so long as I do live. (As I write this last
sentence I hear the voice of prayer from a pious clergyman
whose study, I just learn, is over my office where I now write.
I accept the omen, if the word be allowable ; if not, may God
forgive me.) In all this I know I can of myself do nothing
save to ask, seek, and knock, according to the Saviour's com
mand and promise. I have no self-righteousness to urge, no
merits of my own, none, none. These in the expressive lan
guage of the Holy Scriptures are but ' rags, filthy rags ; ' and
if he was thrust out who came to the feast not in rags, but
only without the ' wedding-garment/ how should I hope to
gain admittance in such wretched attire ? I know that I am
a sinner, and that the thoughts and intents of my heart (I feel
it even now while I write) are evil in all things, and that
continually. But I shall ask, seek, and knock with a firm but
very humble reliance on the merits of the Saviour, His atone
ment and intercession, and not doubting the many promises
which He has everywhere given in all His word. I would not
be over-confident. As yet I can find assurance of nothing
about me except only the desire to look into these things, and to
have religion brought home to me personally, and that without
delay. In the meantime I would by God's grace and assist
ance set a guard upon all my actions, my words, and that
which is most difficult of all, my thoughts, the very lairs and
coverts of sin. I would do all, speak all, think all for the
glory of God as my first and chiefest motive. And praying
to Him humbly but fervently as prayer ever came from
human lips, first for pardon of past sins and then for grace
and assistance in the future, I do greatly desire and long to
henceforward live 'soberly, righteously, and godly while in

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 497

this present world, using the things thereof as not abusing
them, remembering always that the fashion thereof passeth
away/ and to make it the great rule of my life to be diligent
in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. And may God
write this as with a pen of iron upon the tablets of my heart,
and grant me grace to remember and conform to it all the days
of my appointed time, and when heart and flesh fail me, pro
vide then for me a mansion in that house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.

" Many things combined while as yet I knew it not, to
bring me to think upon this great subject: association and
conversation with a truly excellent and pious pastor, a young
man like myself, just after my own heart save in sin, coming
up to the full stature of the true man both in intellect and
soul, and made in Nature's noblest mould, a friend and a com
panion ; I wish you knew him, my dear brother. A series of
powerful, eloquent, and outspoken sermons upon the doctrines
of the Bible, calling me back to recollect that I had been bred
a Calvinist, which I had forgotten at the same time that I
ceased to remember that I was a sinner. The birth of my
dearly beloved and only son, mellowing and softening and en
larging my heart till its waters of affection, long hidden be
neath the hardened and hardening rock of childlessness,
welled up like streams gushing from a copious and perennial
fountain. The interest which I felt in the concern manifested
by my dear sister, Ellen Bell, for the salvation of her soul.
The solemn reflection that of all my family I alone have wor
shipped not in spirit and in truth the God of my fathers for
so many generations. The love I bear my dear mother, and
her meek and sorrowful look of solicitude and yearning when
last I saw her essaying to speak to me as I well knew on this
momentous subject, though her heart failed her and she was
silent, but silent in such a sort that pierced through and through
my heart deeper and more powerful than any words : these
and many other things of lesser note, all contributed to turn
my thoughts to this great concern. What the end shall be I
know not. PRAY FOR ME, my brother.

" The wonderful revival in your charge has excited great
interest everywhere (indeed I forgot to enumerate it among
one of the chief causes which have led me to think of religion
as an immediate personal concern). In no place has it been

32

498 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

more spoken of than here. Much interest has been felt for a
week or two past in this church. A series of meetings, salu
tary and blessed to many, have been held, and not a few added
to the church. I have not attended these special meetings, not
so much for want of time (though more than usually thronged
just now with business) — there is always time ; but you know
my old prejudices, partly inherited, partly the result of obser
vation, against set efforts for a revival, because of the danger
of their degenerating into mere animal excitement, which pass
ing away, leaves the church an hundredfold colder than before,
and those who had been alarmed into feeling, infinitely, miser
ably worse and nearer perdition than if they had never heard
of the Gospel. I write to you freely, my dear brother, for you
at least will not misinterpret me. I believe, however, that in
your churches it was a power from on high — nothing less
than the Almighty arm ; and I know your views too well to
suppose for a moment that any mere human appliances were
resorted to. And just the same I can say here and in the case
of Mr. Brookes. And besides I am not used to feel the tender
emotions of the soul in public crowds. I am a quiet man in
my feelings, and it is only in the solitude and retiracy of my
closet that they flow out in genial, gushing streams — or among
a few select, and well-tried friends and the bosom of my family.
But I may err in all this, and say no more.

" I have time to add but a few words more upon general
matters. "We rejoice in the health and general prosperity of
yourself and family. "We unite in cordial and earnest love to
all. Ellen Bell, who feels and is resolved just like myself,
especially desires to be remembered. Write to me immediately.
We are all well, and our dear babe is everything we could
desire.

" Farewell. Your truly affectionate brother,

" CLEMENT.
" Rev. J. L. Vallandigham, New Ark, Delaware."

" P. S. — I have greatly prospered this fall in my profes
sional avocations, and I bless God that I feel now like laboring
in them with a calmer mind and from yet loftier motives, and
with more determined effort than ever, yet always fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord"

We have given this long letter in full because of its great

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 499

value and importance as an exposition of the religious views
and feelings of the writer.

A few days after he wrote on the same subject to 'his
mother. This letter she immediately sent to her eldest son
with this brief note :

"February 16.

"Dear James: — I have read with much pleasure and
thankfulness your letter in the Presbyterian,* and pray the
Lord that you may still continue to give the praise and glory
of this great work to Him who worketh and none can hinder.
I do earnestly pray that the dear people may be steadfast in
the faith, always abounding in the work of the Lord. You
will perceive from the letter accompanying this that I have
still more abundant cause of thankfulness : indeed my heart
overflows with gratitude, and my eyes with tears, and I am
continually saying, ' What shall I render to the Lord for all
His mercies to me?' I am so weak I cannot write more. I
am just recovering from a very bad cold that has confined me
to the house, and most of the time to my room, for "several
weeks. Your very affectionate

" MOTHER."

The following is the letter to his mother : —

" DAYTOX, Feb. 12, 1855.

"My dearest, dear Mother: — If it were at all convenient, I
would with infinite pleasure go at once to see you. I have ten
thousand things to say and to talk about, of which time and
space would fail me to write; but the sum of all is, that
whereas I was blind, now I see — and I feel a peace and
joy which the world never gave, and which I know and am
ASSURED it cannot take away.

" The day I mailed that letter to you I erected an altar to
God in my household, and henceforward relying upon Divine
assistance, the morning and evening sacrifice shall daily be

offered up throughout my lifetime I could say much,

very much ; but you will understand me. ~No arm of flesh,
and least of all my own might, has done this. But I have not
time to write more now, as I am very busy ; and yet I do very

* Giving an account of the revival

500 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

greatly rejoice that in the very midst of it all, and while I am
diligent in business more than ever, I am fervent also in spirit,
with a very earnest desire in all things to serve the Lord in
spirit and in truth, and with very humbleness of soul.

" Your own son,

" CLEMENT.
"Mrs. R Vallandigham, New Lisbon, Ohio."

On the same day he wrote again to his brother James.
After referring to some other matters, he thus writes : —

"As to that other great subject of which I wrote, my feel
ings are such as I could not portray to you in less than many,
many pages of paper, or hours and days of conversation ; but
the sum of all is — a peace and joy which the world never gave,
and which, God be praised, I feel and am assured it cannot
take away. The day after I wrote to you I erected an altar to
God in my own household, and by His blessing, the morning
and evening sacrifice shall daily be offered up so long as I do
live; and in a like spirit, a spirit by His aid, shall all
my other duties be performed. I feel now as if by God's grace
I were at length a WHOLE MAN, made really in his image, and
able now lo do some good truly in the Church and the world.
Oh that this exultant glow of soul might continue ! But you
know my sole reliance ; and I hope and believe it may ; for
diligent now more than ever in business, I feel yet fervent in
spirit, desiring in all things to serve the Lord."

In the spring of 1855 he united with the First Presbyterian
Church of Dayton, of which the Rev. James H. Brookes, D. D.,
was then pastor. In the following letter, dated St. Louis,
Sept. 14, 1871, Dr. Brookes refers to the events of that period,
and gives his estimate of the Christian character of Mr. Val
landigham : —

" Before my personal acquaintance with him in the
year 1854, I had heard of him as an able, ambitious and
unscrupulous politician. Soon after my arrival in Dayton
to take charge of the First Presbyterian Church of that city,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 501

lie called upon me, but I received him with a coolness to which
he afterwards pleasantly referred, saying that he saw at a
glance the unfavorable impression I had received of his char
acter. Subsequently he told me frankly and freely the story
of his life, his early struggles, his hopes, his aims, and his
fixed purpose to follow the path of duty in his political career
without the smallest sacrifice of principle and without leaving
the slightest stain upon his conscience. He did not profess to
be indifferent to popular applause, but ever avowed an
unfaltering determination to stand alone if need be, and if need
be to die, in maintaining what he believed to be right; and
often he would quote with admiration the words of Cardinal
Wolsey :

'Be just and fear not:

Let all the ends tkou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's ; then if thou fallest, O Cromwell,
Thou fallest a blessed martyr.'

"He was bright and genial and winning in his manner
and our acquaintance soon ripened into close and confidential
intimacy, which threw us together almost daily when he was at
home. I do not recall during that entire period a .word
that fell from his lips which would have been unseemly if
uttered in the presence of the most refined lady. No obscenity
nor profanity ever defiled his tongue, and he was free from
what are called the ' smaller vices/ abstaining even from the
use of tobacco in any form.

" About a year after our intimacy commenced he became a
Christian, and under circumstances that are worthy of mention.
A scries of doctrinal discourses had been delivered in which
high Calvinistic ground was taken with regard to the absolute
sovereignty of God's electing love and the utter depravity and
helplessness of man. The discourses excited considerable op
position, and even on the part of some who were members of
the church ; but greatly to my surprise and gratification, your
brother announced that they had been the means of leading
him to see his ruin by nature and his need of Christ. From
that time until I left Dayton he was a consistent and faithful
Christian so far as I know, although continually exposed to
the shafts of the most cruel slander. Often have I known
him to lead in public prayer, and family worship was main
tained in his household up to the time of our separation.

502 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"With his subsequent religious life I am not familiar, save that
during the war while I was his guest for two weeks, every
morning and evening God's word was read, and we kneeled
together in prayer. Only a few months since I received a
pleasant fraternal letter from him, and was looking forward to
a promised visit to St. Louis, when he "was so unexpectedly
summoned away from the turmoils of earth and the bitter
strife of tongues. I send you this as a little wreath I would
love to droD in his grave."

After being connected with this church for some years, and
promising, according to the testimony of Dr. Brookes, to be a
very useful member, Mr. Yallandigham quietly ~J withdrew.
The correspondence that ensued between him and the session
of the church is in our possession, but we do not deem it
necessary to publish it. ' It is sufficient to say that political
proscription was the cause, the sole cause of his withdrawal.
His opinion was — and he adhered to it most firmly, and as
we think correctly — that politics should be strictly excluded
from the pulpit, should be kept entirely out of the church;
that the members, without regard to the political sentiments
which they might respectively hold, should treat each other
with Christian courtesy, should love each other with fraternal
affection, and that in the church at least, like brethren they
should " dwell together in unity/'7 That this withdrawal from
the church of his choice, the church of his ancestors for many
generations, was exceedingly painful to him we know from
conversations we had with him at the time, and from letters
now in our possession written to his relatives and intimate
friends.

He afterwards attended, sometimes the Episcopal and some
times the Lutheran church. For some four or five years he
sat under the ministry of Rev. D. Steck, pastor of the Lutheran

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 503

church of Dayton, whose letter containing recollections and
incidents of that period we here present : —

" REV. JAMES L. YALLANDIGHAM :

" Dear Brother : — It affords me sincere pleasure to learn,
as I do from your note, that you are engaged in preparing a
biography of your brother, the late Hon. C. L. Vallandigham.
You suggest that, as it was my privilege during my residence
in Dayton to know him somewhat intimately, I might have
some impressions in regard to his character to communicate,
with a view to aid you in the work you have in hand. Any
statements bearing upon his religious character, I am led to
believe, would be especially acceptable. My mind recurs to
some very pleasant incidents, in the light of which it is not
difficult to perceive, to some extent at least, what Mr. Vallaii-
digham was in this aspect of his character.

"My personal acquaintance with your honored brother
began in the fall of 1864, when he became a regular attendant
upon the services of the church of which I was at that time
the pastor. I had known him previously, but only in a gen
eral way, just as I knew other public men. I remained in
Dayton a little over four years from the date here given. During
all this time it was his habit, as often as the Lord's day occurred,
to be in his place in the house of God. He was an at
tentive and deeply interested hearer of the preached word,
while his whole bearing and demeanor during worship were
so modest, humble, and devout as to make him in this respect,
as he was in many others, a model of propriety. Interested as
he was in the great questions which concerned the public wel
fare, and engaged as he often was in sharp but manly conflict
with men holding views opposite to his own, yet was he
not so absorbed in these matters but that he found time, as he
also had the taste, to attend to the humbler things which con
cern religion.

" Mr. Vallandigham was an excellent theologian as well as
a great lawyer and eminent statesman. And was he not the
greater as a lawyer and statesman because of his excellence as a
theologian? He was well versed in all the great questions which
have divided Christendom, and, though decided in his own
views, lamented as all good men do the bigotry of sectism
and the babel of denominational tongues. He was especially

504 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

well versed in the Bible, a fact made sufficiently obvious by
the many graceful and striking allusions to its contents ex
hibited in his speeches. These gems were mixed up in the
vast fund of his intellectual wealth in such a way that they
came forth spontaneously with the general current of his
thought, because as the result of early education and persever
ing habit they had become, so to speak, a necessary part of his
mental being. He prized the Bible not only on account of its
literary beauties, but because he believed it to be the Word of
God, and as such, the rule by which every man should regulate
his life. It was my privilege to converse with him very often
on Scriptural topics, and on these occasions I never failed to be
impressed with his sincere and deep reverence for the Holy
Book. The Sermon on the Mount was held by him in special
regard. On account of their profundity he greatly admired
the Epistles of Paul. Calling on him one day when he was
at leisure, our conversation was of the character here indicated,
when he directed my attention to Paul's exhortation to Chris
tians — they should 'live soberly, righteously, and godly in
this present world/ ' What a comprehensive precept ! } said he ;
' it is an epitome of man's whole duty : his duty to himself—
he is to live soberly ; his duty to his fellowmen — he is to
live righteously ; his duty to his God — he is to live godly/
It was a beautiful exposition, and the simple earnestness with
which it was given — and he was the most earnest man I ever
knew — fascinated and charmed me as I listened.

" Mr. Vallandigham, as I knew him, was a very correct
man, morally speaking — a perfect gentleman ; and if this ex
pression means no more than it ordinarily passes for, much
more than a gentleman. I have met him when alone ; I have
sat with him in the family circle at his own hearth-stone; I
have seen him in the social gathering where he was ' the ob
served of all observers;' and I have, in a few instances, met
him on occasions of great public interest and excitement ; and
his conduct was always that of a high-toned gentleman, so en
tirely master of himself that he seemed to be under no temp
tation to transgress the rules of propriety in any particular.
On intimate terms with him for more than four years, I never
once heard a profane or obscene word from his lips.

"Some two years before I left the city of Dayton the family
of Mr. Vallandighani were greatly afflicted in the death, of a

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 505

near relative, Miss Belle McMahon, a sister to Mrs. Vallandig-
ham, and a most amiable and every way excellent Christian
lady. For many weeks previous to her release from the body
she had been a great sufferer. During this time it was my
duty as it was my privilege to appear many times at the bed
side of her who was sick, to do, by prayer and religious con
versation, what b^ the blessing of God I could to prepare her
mind for the end which all perceived was drawing near. I
had thus an opportunity to look at the character of Mr. V. as
it appeared under affliction, for no member of the family sym
pathised more deeply with the sufferer than he. He not only
did all in his power to soothe her bodily pains, but he took the
deepest interest in her spiritual welfare. When she became
despondent, as she sometimes did, and expressed doubts as to
the question of her acceptance, he would sit by her bed-side,
and like a true brother, read to her some appropriate lesson
from the Word of God. Then he would speak to her of the
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Christ, and thus
endeavor to dispel her despondency. On more than one occa
sion he had me to call at his office, when he would, in the
most feeling manner, state to me the substance of his inter
views with her. Sometimes he read for her the service for the
sick in the Book of Common Prayer, at other times some por
tion of the Scriptures, the book and chapter of which he would
mention to me. My last interview with this excellent lady took
place when she was near her end, and felt herself that she was
dying. The scene was very solemn and affecting. As I entered
the chamber of the dying Christian, Mr. V., the family, and a few
invited friends, were standing around her bed attending to her
last requests. As I approached, her eye fell upon me, and she
said, ' Mr. S. has come; let the conversation be suspended, and let
us once more have prayer.' Her request was complied with.
Prayer, the last prayer, was made. It was a touching occasion;
all were bathed in tears. When we rose from our bended
knees Mr. Vallandigham was overcome by his emotions, and
retiring to an adjoining room, gave vent to his feelings and
wept like a child. I had heard him when by his powers as an
orator he swayed vast multitudes of people as I have never
seen them swayed by any other man ; but when, on this sad
day, I saw him bow in tearful submission to the call which was
summoning a dear one hence, the man I rather admired than
loved before, I now both admired and loved.

\

506 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

" Mr. Vallandigham was a firm believer in the doctrine
that 'the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men;' and this
fact, he often said to me, made him strong in the belief that
our country, under Providence, would yet some day emerge
from all the confusion and trouble under which it was strug
gling, and move on to a grander position in the scale of
national greatness than it had hitherto attained.

" With these hastily sketched incidents and reflections ; with
the highest regard for the name and character of the honored
dead ; with the hope that in passing from the exciting scenes
of earth he has been translated to the Father's house of many
mansions ; and with the prayer that the memorial volume you
are about to publish may prove a blessing to all who shall read
its pages, and through them to the land its subject loved so
well, permit me to subscribe myself,

' " Sincerely yours,

" D. STECK.
" Middletown, Md., Nov. 20th, 1871."

The following letter, written by Mr. Vallandigham to his
sister Margaret on the occasion of the death of her husband,
exhibits alike his kind sympathy and Christian faith : —

"DAYTOX, Ohio, Dec. 12, 1869.
" Mrs. M. E. Robertson, New Lisbon, Ohio :

" My Dear Sister : — I was absent in another county, in the
midst of the trial of an important case, when Mr. Oilman's
dispatch came announcing Mr. Robertson's death.

" I write now to assure you of my deepest sympathy with
you and yours in this great bereavement. I feel sure that,
though sorrowing, it is not as one without hope. In a little
while we shall all follow, and, I trust and believe, be reunited
with the many dear and loved ones whom we now mourn, but
who have only preceded us to those mansions in the skies where,
purified and perfected spirits, we shall meet again and dwell
together forever, where the eye sheds no tear, the bosom heaves
no sigh, the heart swells not with secret grief, and no sorrow
ever comes. For surely it is a reality — but if a delusion, yet
one to which I would fondly cling (associated as it is with
earliest and most cherished memories of sainted father and
mother) till heart and flesh fail me -—that

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAND'IGHAM. 507

* There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite clay excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.'

" In this faith died all of our household, and of the house
holds for generations wherever we have inherited family and
name ; and let us cherish it with an unfaltering trust till we
too shall lie down in the dust. I have long since ceased to
look upon death with any sensation of terror, and like the
patriarch Job, say daily, ( All the days of my appointed time
will I wait till my change come.' So let it be with all of us.
You remember the beautiful poem of Mrs. Hemans, 'The
Graves of a Household/ A like fortune has been ours who
in childhood grew up so lovingly together ; yet shall we meet
together again, young and old, glorified spirits, in the i house
not made with hands, eternal and on high/

"Comfort yourself, therefore, my dear sister, under this
great affliction, and may the Father of all mercies be very
gracious to you.

" We are all well, and unite in much love to you all.
" Very affectionately, your brother

" CLEMENT."

The above letter was, last August, published in the Dayton
Ledger. Its publication was accompanied with some editorial
remarks which, coming from one who was long and intimately
acquainted with Mr. Vallandigham, and because 'of their
intrinsic excellence, we insert' in this volume. Speaking of the
letter, he says : —

tc It exhibits one of the most beautiful traits in Mr. Vallan-
digham's private character as we knew him, and as he appeared
among friends and relatives. Besides, in view of the recent
death of Mr. Vallandigham himself, it now possesses a peculiar
and mournful interest, aside from the touching tenderness and
manly sympathy which it shows for the distress of a bereaved
sister. It exhibits too, and confirms to the world, what the
writer of this during a long acquaintance with Mr. Vallandig
ham, extending over a period of almost twenty years and
embracing his most, active political life, had often observed in

508 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

him, namely: that a deep vein of actual piety and firmly
seated religious conviction entered into Mr. "VVs composition,
and seemed to be part of his being. We know, too, that the
leading maxims of his life were drawn from scriptural read
ings, with which his speeches and conversations, unconsciously
to himself as it were, plenteously abounded. By the outside
world, who only knew Mr. Yallandigham at a distance or
observed him carelessly, and that too often through the dis
torted medium of personal or political prejudices, this fact
would scarcely be credited. But we appeal to his recorded
speeches and writings for the evidence. We never knew a
man in our life who was more thoroughly permeated in his
private convictions with the philosophy of the Bible than Mr.
Vallandigham. Nor did we ever know a more thorough
Biblical scholar. Unconsciously to himself, this kind of learn
ing not only furnished him 'a rule of life but pervaded his
sentiments and philosophy — not in a narrow, sectarian sense,
but in broad, liberalising, humanitarian and charitable" prin
ciples, free from the dogmatisms of creeds or the hypocrisy of
empty professions. Mr. V.'s religion was innate with him.
It was both a sentiment and a principle, and we believe that he
himself was unconscious of the strength of that element in his
own nature, or of the firm texture that it gave to his character
in all other things. More firmly than any other man that we
ever knew, he believed that there was a right side and a wrong
side to everything ; that God ruled the world and provided for
the ultimate triumph of the right with the same certainty with
which He had set the seasons or fixed the laws o.f gravitation.
Hence his conduct on every question was always guided by fixed
and deliberate convictions, and hence too the amazing energy
and unswerving, inspmng faith with which he always clung
to and maintained them. To us therefore who knew him so
well, there is one sentence in the letter which we now give to
the public, which above all others confirms the estimate we
ever had of him, and throws a flood of light not only on the
utter fearlessness of his character, but explains the high and
unfailing sources of it — how little terror death had for him,
and how thoroughly he had come to contemplate it with the
calmness of a philosopher and the resignation of a Christian.
Speaking in this calm faith of the immortality of the soul, and
of the blessed hopes hereafter, says Mr. Vallandigham : —

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 509

' ' ' For surely it is a reality In this faith died all

of our household, and of the households for generations where-
ever we have inherited family and name ; and let us cherish it
with an unfailing trust till we too shall lie down in the dust.
I have long since ceased,' says he, 'to look upon death with any
sensation of terror, and like the patriarch Job, say daily, "All
the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
come." So let it be with all of us/

" Here, indeed, is and was the key to Mr. "Vallandigham's
whole character. He believed in God, and in his own destiny
in the hands and under the guidance of that Supreme Being.
How little, then, could the persecutions and the revilings
which he suffered in his life, affect him, or break or intimidate
his noble spirit ! And how clearly, and loudly, in the midst
of all of them, in his speech of January 14, 1863, rang out his
manly and almost God-like defiance :

" 'Do right ; and trust to God, and the truth, and the people !
PERISH OFFICE! PERISH HONORS! PERISH LIFE ITSELF; BUT
DO THE THING THAT IS RIGHT, AND DO IT LIKE A MAN ! '

" Such, indeed, was Mr. Yallandigham — of the stuff that
the ancient martyrs were made of — whether grappling with a
remorseless, overpowering, despotic Administration, or wrest
ling in the sanctity of private life with a great affliction, and
comforting those who leaned on him for sympathy and pro
tection — still turning to his faith like the needle to the pole,
and reiterating his trust in ' God, and the truth, and the people/
Verily, we shall never see his like again ! "

The three following letters we present in further illustration
of Mr. Vallandigham's Christian character.
To his brother James : —

"DAYTON, O., Dec. 6, 1855.

"... I have a few choice theological -and religious books,
but the BIBLE is almost my only study of this sort. The more
I read it, and the more I reflect upon it and upon religious
subjects, the more I am satisfied that the nearer we keep to it,
and the further from books of man's invention and device,
even if true and sound, yet but mere dilutions of its God-,
revealed teachings, the nearer we are ?to the truth. 1 find

510 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGKHAM.

this especially true in regard to professed books of devotion
and practical piety, many of them utterly erroneous, or miser
ably weak. I find that every man assumes his own notions
and experiences, colored as they must be by his temperament,
education, time of life, and a thousand other circumstances,
as the only true standard, and hence there are just as many
standards as authors and books, and no two alike. And but
for the Bible, ' the sure word of prophecy/ I should have been
driven to the verge of skepticism, in the midst of this mass of
jargon and inanity, and too often mere cant. Hence I have
ceased to look into them, and turn again and again, and yet
again, with fresh and infinite delight to the waters of that river
of life pure as crystal, flowing from the one perennial and un
varying fountain of God's most holy word. Here I find rivers
of pleasure forevermore. And I cannot consent to drink of
the bitter and muddy ditches and drains which have been filled
therefrom afar off, when I may drink at the original fountain
of the water of life, and thirst for none other. And I think
if we had less mere sermonising, and more exposition of the
Scriptures in the pulpit, it would be much better. Indeed I
think that after the canon closed, it was the chief and original
office of the ministry to expound the Bible. But I take the
whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, not a particular book
in it, or part of it, least of all a particular text, whereon to
build a system of faith or rules of practice; but 'all Scripture'
— Old Testament and New, the Pentateuch as well as the
Epistles. Interpreting these all together, limiting, explaining,
enlarging, illustrating one part by another, and by and with
the volume of nature, I strive, by God's blessing, to attain as
far as my poor faculties will admit, a full and true knowledge
of what He would have me believe concerning Him, and what
duty He requires of me. If I read one part more than another,
it is the Psalms and the Gospels. But I could write a small
book on these subjects, and lest I should weary you, stay my
pen. (I prefer the old writers on theology decidedly.) 5;

To his mother : —

"DAYTON, Dec. 22, '55.

" .... I shall depend on you meantime not to deny your
selves any necessary or comfort on my account, as the Lord

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. ^ 511

prospers me, and I am able to help you fully, and you know
how willing. I have much, very much continually to be
thankful for. Business returns again freely with the winter,
and money of course with it. Health and prosperity continue
with us on all sides, and ' our cup with goodness overflows.'
I have lately been greatly honored and praised everywhere for
the speech I made here in October. But I give God all the
' glory/ and recognise in it renewed cause for thankfulness and
gratitude and obedience. I rejoice, dear mother, that you re
member me daily. It is true that I am surrounded by temp^
tations and full of engagements ; but these are only trials of
our faith and steadfastness. These engagements, too, I recog
nise as so many duties, and strive to perform them in the fear
of God. My purpose, relying wholly on Him for the strength
and wisdom which come from above, is always ' so to use the
things of the world as not to abuse them.' Active and earnest
pursuit of the lawful business of the world, ever mindful to
give God the glory in all things, is perfectly consistent with the
Christian walk and character, and indeed is a Christian duty.
The Apostle Paul pronounces him who neglects it ' worse than
an infidel ' — one who denies the Saviour. . . It was in the
wilderness, too, and alone, that our JLord was tempted. What
is required of us then is watchfulness and prayer — meaning by
prayer not only petition, but all devotion and worship of God
— a continual sense of His presence, and lifting up our heart
to Him. It is not to be taken out of the world, but to be pre
served in the world from sin. * Diligence in business ' implies
earnest and zealous attention to it: without this there is no
success in it. King David managed ihe aifairs of a great
kingdom and raised it from feebleness to the highest pitch of
splendor ; he was continually engaged in its multiplied and per
plexing concerns ; and yet he was adjudged perfect save in one
matter only. I take the Bible and nothing but the Bible as my
rule of faith and practice ; and taking it, I would work every day
in the discharge of the duties which devolve upon me as an
inhabitant of earth as if I were to live for ever, and yet by
God's blessing and grace live every day as though I was to die
to-morrow. I regret indeed that my engagements sometimes
interfere necessarily with some of the more outward and public
exercises ; but not with the private and the secret devotions of
the heart. God is everywhere, and the heart can be lifted to

512 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Him, and His presence be felt, in the court-room, the office,
the legislative hall, and upon the street, as well as in the public
sanctuary. While I am not so strict as some about what my
judgment and conscience tell me is only the ' tithing of mint,
anise and cumin/ I strive always strictly to observe all the
'weightier matters of the law.' Yet after all I know that I am
an unprofitable servant, and rely solely for strength, wisdom
and guidance here, and salvation hereafter, upon the ' free
grace ' of God and our Redeemer."

To his mother : —

"DAYTON, Ohio, Feb. 7, 1856.

" My Dearest Mother : — I have time only to enclose you a
small present, which I trust will be acceptable. I have
thought of you every day during this severe winter. It has
reminded me of the old-fashioned winters of which I have
heard you speak, and also of some winters which I remember
of in my childhood. I hope you have been comfortable, and
that all are well. My trust has been in our Father who is in
heaven, who doeth all things well. His mercies and his kind
providences have been very signal and infinite in number, and
fill my heart continually with gratitude, causing me to exclaim
with the Psalmist : ' Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is
within me, bless His Holy Name ! ' In his character of Crea
tor, Preserver, Benefactor and .Redeemer, he unites everything
which calls for unceasing praise and thanksgiving. And these,
in the midst of the business and cares and pursuits of every
kind of this life, I desire to render at all times and in all
places, striving to attain that perfection of life and character
as drawn by St. Paul — ' Not slothful in business, fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord — using the things of the world as not
abusing them, remembering that the fashion thereof passeth
away/ ;;

The following letter from the Rev. Mr. Haight is in reply
to one making inquiry as to his interview, or attempted inter
view, with Mr. Yallandigham on his death- bed : —

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 513

" LEBANON, Ohio, July 3, 1871.
" Rev. J. L. Vallandigham :

" Dear Brother : — I was with your lamented brother during
nine hours of his sufferings, and saw him expire. I asked
permission to say a few words to him on the great question,
having a strong desire to know his mind in view of the solemn
realities he was approaching, but was not allowed to do so, as
the doctors said absolute quiet was the only remaining hope in
his case. Of course I differed with the medical gentlemen,
but had to submit. About 3 o'clock on the morning of his
death, as I was standing by his bed-side and wondering what
his thoughts might be, and hoping they were busy with eternal
things, he suddenly opened his eyes, and looking directly and
fixedly into mine, said, in a distinct but somewhat labored voice,
and with a cheerful expression, these words : ' I believe in our
good old doctrine of predestination, and I think I will get
through yet/ then closed his eyes and seemed to sleep. What
did he intend to express by this? I have asked myself again
and again. May we not reasonably believe that in these few
words he gave his last testimony to the faith of Jesus as his
fathers had taught him, and as he had, years ago, publicly
professed? May we not hope and trust that during those
twelve closing hours of his earthly existence, and with his
faculties unimpaired, his old religious experience returned in all
its freshness and vigor, full of joy and immortal hope?

" It has been my lot to witness, in many instances, the last
contest between humanity and death, but I have never seen
more courage, patience and resignation than were exhibited in
your dear brother's last hours. He apparently met death, as he
had met every event in his eventful life — with his face to the
danger, and undismayed. Yours very truly,

"JNO. HAIGHT."

However gratifying it might have been to have heard from
Mr. Vallandigham on his death-bed an expression of his
views and feelings at that trying hour, it was not necessary.
His religious experience as unfolded in the preceding letters,
and the pure and stainless life he lived under circumstances
exceedingly unfavorable to religious culture, and amid trials
33

514 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and temptations that would have driven many a man into utter
apostasy, these sufficiently attest the genuineness of his piety,
and are a rich source of comfort to his relatives and friends in
their deep grief at his sad and sudden departure.

Y»"e will close this chapter with an extract from a letter to
his brother James, announcing the death of Miss Ellen Bell
McMahon, his sister-in-law and a member of his family : —

"DAYTON, OHIO, July 19, 1867.

"My dear Brother :— Poor dear Ellen Bell left us for home
last night at five minutes past eleven. She died easy and
happy, full of faith, hope, assurance. Her sufferings were
protracted and severe, but she bore them all without a mur
mur or complaint, nor desired to live longer. It is a terrible
trial, but Louisa bears up under it better than in any former
trouble, sorrow-stricken as she is.

" Poor Ellen will be buried to-morrow afternoon in Wood
land Cemetery, most beautiful among all the * cities of silence,'
alongside of our infant little boy, there to sleep sweetly ; and
where by-and-bye we shall join our dust to hers, sleeping too
till ' this corruption shall put on incorruption, and this mortal
immortality/ Till then ( all the days of my appointed time
(here) shall I wait till my change come/ "

CHAPTEE XXII.

HIS DEATH.

"WHAT shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue! "
Such was the exclamation of an eminent British statesman
when he heard of the unexpected death of a distinguished
rival. And how forcibly is this truth exemplified in the
sudden departure of Mr. Vallandigham ! Never was his
health more vigorous than on the morning of the day on
which the accident occurred, never his form more robust, nor
his prospects of long life more promising; and never were
his political prospects brighter — his prospects of honor, of
eminence, of usefulness.

Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, is a town of some four
thousand inhabitants. It has been the home of some of Ohio's
most eminent statesmen. Here lived Jeremiah Morrow, John
McLean, and others whose names have attained a wide celebrity.
Here lived and died one of the most remarkable men of our
age, Hon. Thomas Corwin, a man whose powers of mind have
never been properly appreciated. Here too, in 1825, died a
favorite daughter of Henry Clay, and in the old Baptist
burial-ground she lies buried. Referring to her death, a letter-
writer from Lebanon many years ago beautifully says : "What
a history of disappointed hopes and of the keenest sorrows
would the heart-life of most of our great men unfold ! The

516 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

path of glory is one bedewed with tears, and our greatest men
are arrested by the providence of God in their schemes of
earthly ambition. For six weeks did the great statesman
Henry Clay tarry in Lebanon to watch over the decline
and death of the flower of his heart ; and when he laid his
blooming daughter among strangers, how did he feel the
emptiness of human glory and the preciousness of the Chris
tian faith inscribed on the tablet to his daughter's memory ! "
And here, on the 16th day of June, 1871, whilst preparing
to make what he expected would be the greatest legal effort of
his life, the fatal accident occurred which closed the mortal
career of Clement L. Yallandigham.

The case in which he was engaged was a very remarkable one.
It originated in Hamilton, Butler County. On the evening of
the 24th day of December, 1870, a large party of gentlemen were
engaged in playing various games of cards in the saloon known
as "The American," which is situated 011 High street, between
First and Second streets, and directly opposite the court-house.
Thomas Myers, who was murdered that night, after attending
a meeting of the building association to which he belonged,
went up into the upper room of the saloon, and soon became
engaged in a game of faro. A little after eight o'clock, five
men, among them Thomas McGehan, came up into the faro-
room, and in a moment after they entered Myers was attacked
with slung-shots and boulders suddenly and from behind. He
immediately jumped to his feet and attempted to draw his pistol
from his right side pantaloons' pocket ; he had some difficulty
getting it out, and whilst in the act of drawing it, the muffled
sound of a pistol-shot was heard. When he did get his pistol
out, it was evident he had been severely hurt. He had grasped

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 517

Jack Garver (one of his assailants) the moment he arose, but
his grip soon relaxed. He fell on the floor, but again arose,
fired two shots, then fell again, and ^ he lay fired another
shot ; but all these shots were aimless, and in a few moments
he was a corpse. The affray was so sudden, so frightful in its
character, and the struggle so violent, that more than a dozen
men whose minds were deeply intent upon their play, startled
and utterly astonished, instinctively sought safety in flight.
Tables and chairs were upset, the stove was knocked over, and
in an instant a quiet room, where scarcely a voice had been
heard, was changed into a perfect pandemonium. Tom
McGehan was seen in the room during this terrible affray by
several persons, but no one saw him have a pistol, nor did any
one pretend (except Jack Garver, who turned State's evidence)
to have seen him engaged in any hostile demonstration. Yet
because it was known that he had been on bad terms with
Myers for years, although this was not shown on the trial, and
on account of his well-known desperate character, the suspicions
of the community immediately pointed to him as the instigator,
if not the actual perpetrator of this terrible crime. Such was
the terror of McGehan's name, however, that more than
twenty-four hours passed before any movement was made to
arrest him, or those supposed to be associated with him in the
killing of Myers. After the parties accused were safely lodged
in jail, the excitement of the community became very high.
Although Tom Myers, the murdered man, had been a notorious
rough, and had a very bad character for peace and quiet in the
community, yet his family were popular and highly respected,
and the horrible circumstances connected with his sudden and
cowardly murder were well calculated to produce intense feel-

518 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

ing in any community. There was talk even of resorting to
lynch-law. Fortunately better counsels prevailed, and on
the Wednesday after tile murder, which occurred 011 Saturday
night, the preliminary investigation commenced before Squire
Wilkins. This was attended with intense excitement, lasted
several days, and the court-room was every day crowded to
suffocation. The prejudice and animosity of the immense
crowd were exhibited without reserve during the whole time ;
and although the Justice endeavored to suppress any extra
ordinary manifestations of feeling, yet on several occasions
testimony which bore heavily against McGehan was greeted with
boisterous applause. Mr. Vallandigham, who had been early
retained in the case, when he came to speak, denounced in elo
quent and fitting terms this unseemly conduct; but it was
almost impossible to suppress its exhibition. The prisoners
were all held for murder in the first degree, and bail of course
refused. At the January term of the Court of Common Pleas,
an indictment against all the parties charged was found for
murder in the first degree. Soon after an application for a change
of venue was granted by the court to McGehan, and the change
was made from Butler County to Warren. At Lebanon, the
eounty seat of Warren County, upon the 6th day of June,
1871, the trial commenced, Judge Leroy Pope presiding. An
immense array of counsel appeared both for the State and for
McGehan, and great interest was manifested all over the
country in the progress of the trial. By common consent of
the counsel, several of them very able men, Mr. Vallandigham
was given the chief management of the case for McGehan, and
entered upon the discharge of his duty with the most intense
ardor ; his whole mind and soul, in fact, seemed wrapped up

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 519

in this case. Mr. Vallandigham displayed more than ordinary
interest in this case not only because of its magnitude, not only
on account of his duty to his client professionally, but further
because remarks made by certain individuals as to his connec
tion with the case had angered him deeply and excited his
mind to the highest degree. Of these remarks, now that the
subject of them is no more, it is not necessary to speak ; they
were made by men who had no connection with the case either
for the prosecution or the defence, and who probably had no
idea that they would ever reach his ear. The ability displayed
by both sides in this remarkable trial was very great. For the
State were arrayed Messrs. George K. Sage, J. F. Follett, S.
Z. Gard (prosecuting attorney of Butler County), Kelley
O'Neill (prosecuting attorney of Warren County), M. N.
Maginnis, S. C. Symmes, and P. H. Kumler ; for the defence,
C. L. Vallandigham, Thomas Millikin, A. F. Hume, A. G.
McBurney, J. A. Gilmore, J. S. Wilson, and James E. Neal.
On Thursday the 15th of June, the evidence was closed; and
the next morning Mr. J. F. Follett, of Cincinnati, commenced
the opening argument for the State, and finished his able
speech about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Yallandigham
then made a very earnest effort to procure an adjournment so
that his coadjutor, Thomas Millikin, could take up the time on
Saturday, and so that he himself should be able to make his
speech on Monday. After considerable discussion he was suc
cessful in making this arrangement. When this understanding
was arrived at, Mr. V. betrayed a satisfaction amounting to
joy, in fact it put him in unusual good spirits, and never in
the happiest days of his early life did he exhibit more lively
feelings or more exuberance of animal spirits. Alas ! little

520 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

did he know, as with a smile upon his animated countenance
and full of good humor, in company with some friends, he left
the court-house, that this was the last evening he was destined
to behold on earth.*

From the interesting accounts contained in the Dayton
Ledger, and Cincinnati Enquirer and Commercial, written and

^X

published at the time, we gather the following facts and inci
dents of the death and attending circumstances : —

"LEBANON, OHIO, June 17, 1871.

" He is dead ! Vallandigham dead ! What a world of
meaning, what a wealth of pathos in these simple but terrible
words ! The man whose name but a few days ago was on every
man's tongue, and whose figure was the central one in American
politics ! What, dead? Vallandigham dead? It can not be!
No ! Impossible ! It's a hoax ! What a pity ! &c. &c. Such
were the exclamations to be heard on the street, in the street
cars, restaurants, hotels, and in fact everywhere that men as
semble this morning, when the first rumors of the terrible
tragedy at Lebanon were whispered. For notwithstanding the
fact that the dispatches in the morning papers stated that the
statesman had been but mortally wounded, and that the vital
spark still animated the face and figure so well known through
out the length and breadth of his own Ohio, the rumor that he
was already dead got abroad, and was passed from mouth to
mouth and ear to ear long before the last scene of the tragedy
was enacted in this quiet little city of the valley.

"Vallandigham, Vallandigham, nothing but Vallandigham
— his virtues, his courage, his policy, his affection, his ability,
his size, height, age, appearance, everything, in short, connected
with him, were the topics of conversation — mournful con
versation, throughout the city, the State, and the nation.

* In the case of McGehan the jury empanelled at the time of Mr. Vallan-
digham's death could not agree, and were discharged. Afterwards the
case was removed to Montgomery County, and there tried, the jury bring
ing in a verdict of murder in the second degree. A motion for a new
trial was granted, the result of which was a verdict of acquittal. This
acquittal excited much indignation in Hamilton, where it was generally
believed that he was guilty.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAND'IGHAM. 521

" In the midst of this excitement this morning your corres
pondent left the city to visit the scene of the tragedy, with a
view to learning all that was to be learned of the saddest in
cident in the history of the State. On the train, as elsewhere,
the great overshadowing topic of conversation was the tragedy
at Lebanon. Those who had already heard the announcement
of the death, detailed it to eager crowds of listeners, male and
female, and in every group of hearers there were suffused eyes
and wet cheeks. And among these — to their honor be it said
— were not a few of his political enemies, men who had op
posed and denounced him while living, but who, now that he
was dead, freely expressed their admiration and respect for the
many noble qualities of the great man whose high courage
nothing but death could quench. At Morrow I left the rail
road and took horse and buggy for this place. Not until this
had I appreciated the widespread sensation that the news of
the misfortune had created. In the cities and towns, and along
the lines of the railroad and telegraph, it was but natural to
expect the discussion of news fraught with such terrible mean
ing. Bnt to find men and women away out there, miles from
railroad and telegraph, eagerly inquiring from every passing
traveller the latest news from the distinguished victim of the
tragedy, astonished me and gave me a new revelation of the
sad importance and widespread effect of the sad event. All
along the road we were besieged by men and women eager to
learn the truth of the report, and when assured of the fact, to
know all of the details. Staid old farmers would leave plough
in furrow, and good housewives desert kitchen and pantry, to
ask questions concerning the great event of the day.

" Many of these, the majority in fact, had known the man
only by reputation, and many of them had so known him only
to hate him as the bold leader of the Ohio Democracy during
the turbulent times of 1863 ; but the sombre shadow of the death
angel's wing had wiped out the dividing lines of party, and
united all in a common brotherhood of sorrow.

" Arriving at Lebanon, we found that usually quiet little
town in a state of intensely suppressed excitement. Great as
was the excitement elsewhere, it was as nothing compared with
that at Lebanon. From the time that the news of the fatal
shot went abroad the night before, every man, woman and
child in the little city had been talking of it, lamenting it, and
discussing the chances of recovery and of death.

522 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

"The heart of the cosy village had been stirred to its deepest
depths by the report of that pistol. And not only there had
that shot been heard, but throughout the length and breadth of
the continent it had echoed and re-echoed in mournful cadence
from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Ay, the echo of that shot traversed the Atlantic and echoed
in the capitals of the Old World, and wherever it was heard
carried with it a feeling of sadness and sorrow such as only the
death of one of earth's greatest children could cause.

"As soon as the news went abroad in the village, the inhabi
tants began to assemble about the Lebanon House and anxiously
inquire the news from fatal room No. 15. All night long and
during the weary hours of the morning the crowd remained in
and about the hotel, and even after the sad announcement (at
ten o'clock this morning) that the wounded statesman had
ceased to breathe, they lingered and talked in whispers of the
tragedy, and dwelt with sorrowful interest upon every detail of
the terrible affair. It is indeed surprising how popular Mr.
Valla^ndigham had become in the village. Coming here as he
did with his anti-war odium upon him, and in the capacity of
chief attorney for one whom the majority of the people believed
to be a desperate and depraved murderer, Mr. Vallandigham
was not received with cordial favor, nor welcomed as a guest
who would do the town honor or reflect credit upon the com
munity. Before, however, the first week of the protracted trial
had passed, the ability and professional courtesy of the lawyer
had won the respect of Court and Bar, and the gentlemanly
suavity and excellent social qualities of the man had secured
the kindly regard of all the citizens with whom he came in
contact. Believing firmly in the innocence of his client, McGe-
han, he had entered into his defence with all the ardor of his
nature, and fought his accusers step by step until the close of
the evidence in the trial, and never until the fatal ball pene
trated his vitals did he for a moment allow his interest to slack,
his watchfulness to flag, or his enthusiasm to cool.

" During the delivery of Mr. Follett's opening argument
yesterday Mr. Vallandigham was busily engaged in watching
the case, taking notes, and in the intervals preparing the great
argument that he firmly believed would be one of the greatest
efforts of his life, and one that would not only add to his fame
as a great criminal lawyer, but result in the refutation of the

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 523

theory of the State and the triumphant acquittal of his client.
Mr. Vallandigham may have been too sanguine in this, but
that he did entertain such opinions is abundantly evident from
what he said to Mr. "Williamson and other friends a few hours
before the fatal shot was fired. Mr. Williamson occupied the next
seat on Mr. Vallandigham's right at the supper-table last even
ing, and was engaged in animated conversation with him on the
subject of the prospects of the case, the theories of the prosecution
and defence, &c. He seemed to be in the best of spirits and per
fectly sanguine of victory. Upon Mr. Williamson's stating that
he intended to go to his home at Loveland that night, Mr. Val-
landigham urged him to stay until the end of the trial, and
especially until after the delivery of his (Vallandigham's) argu
ment. During the afternoon and evening he had repeated this
invitation to a number of acquaintances, ladies and gentlemen
of the town.

" His unusually good spirits and light-heartedness were no
ticed by many of his acquaintances. With a view to detaining
Mr. Williamson until Saturday, he gave a half promise to ac
company that gentleman to his home in Loveland and spend
the Sabbath. ' Frank Cozad,' said he, ' insisted upon my
going with him, and I have partly promised to do so, but my
inclination now is to go to Loveland and spend the Sabbath in
visits to my good friends Bloss, Powell, and Tom Paxton.
But/ added he, 'you remain and hear my argument any
how, and we'll settle the matter before it is time for you to
start for home to-morrow night.'

"He continued to exhibit evidences of good spirits and
sanguine hope up to within a short time before the tragedy,
when the receipt of a letter from his wife, stating that she had
been summoned to the death-bed of her brother, Hon. Jno. "V".
L. McMahon, at Cumberland, Maryland, somewhat saddened
him.

"Alas ! how little did he while mourning his brother-in-law's
death think that that same faithful sister and loving wife would
within a few brief hours be notified of the still greater bereave
ment of her husband's death. Indeed, the heart-crushing
agony that this delicate and affectionate woman is called upon
to suffer is one of the most painful and touching of the
features of this remarkable tragedy.

" From your reporter in attendance at the McGehan trial,

524 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

who was in Mr. Vallandigham's room almost continually from
the time of the shooting until the death struggle, I have
obtained the following detailed account of the tragedy :

" After taking supper, he procured from the landlord of the
hotel a bit of white muslin cloth, perhaps a foot square, for the
purpose of testing to his own satisfaction the question as to
whether a shot fired from a pistol in close proximity to it
would or would not leave a mark of powder upon it. Having
provided himself with this, and put his pistol in his pocket, he
and Mr. Millikin and Mr. Hume went out together to the
south edge of town beyond the residence of Governor McBur-
ney. Arriving there, they were joined by Mr. McBurney,
and the trio became a quartette.

" The pistol which he took with him for this purpose is a
new revolver which he had purchased only a few days before
coming to Lebanon. It is one of Smith & Wesson's manu
facture, with a four-inch barrel and five chambers, and carries
a ball of 32-100 of an inch calibre. It is a beautiful weapon,
handsomely though not elaborately ornamented, and its owner
little thought, when so recently purchasing it, that it would so
soon be the instrument of his untimely death.

" Two shots were fired into the cloth, and all were satisfied
with the result of the experiment, and started back to the hotel.

" Mr. Millikin, ever cautious and thoughtful, said :

" ' Val., there are three shots in your pistol yet. You had
better discharge them.'

"' What for?' responded Mr. Vallandigham.

" ( To prevent any accident/ replied the cautious attorney.
' You might shoot yourself/

" ' No danger of that/ replied Mr. Vallandigham. ' I have
carried and practised with pistols too long to be afraid to have
a loaded one in my pocket.7

" ' You had better be careful though/ said Mr. Millikin.

" ' Never fear me/ was the reply.

"They then slowly walked back toward the town, and,
before they had reached the hotel, separated.

" Arriving at the Lebanon House alone, Mr. Vallandigham
was stopped on his way up stairs by the landlord, and a pack
age that had been left for him in his absence placed in his
hands. That parcel contained another revolver — a weapon
that had been exhibited at the trial in Court, and was not only

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIO-HAM. 525

unloaded, but had had the chambers removed. Proceeding to
his room, he unwrapped the parcel, and at the same time taking
his own weapon from his pocket, laid the two murderous
instruments on the table, side by side.

" A moment later, Mr. Scott Symmes, a young lawyer who
has been connected with the prosecution of the case, passed
the door.

" ' Symmes/ said he, ' Follett is mistaken. A man could
easily shoot himself as Myers was shot. Come in and I will
show how it's done/

" Thus invited, Symmes entered the room; but a moment
later, seeing Judge Pope coming up stairs, excused himself on
the ground that he was going to Hamilton in the morning, and
wished to see the Judge before he left. He passed out, and a
minute or so afterward Mr. McBurney came into the room.
Mr. Vallandigham, still standing by the table on which the
pistols lay, said :

" ' I'll show you how Tom Myers shot himself. Follett's
mistaken when he says it can't be done/ Saying this he took
up one of the murderous instruments in his hands, put it into
his pantaloons pocket, and slowly drawing it out again, cocking
it as he drew it forth, he attempted to place it in t'he exact
position which he believed Myers' weapon to have assumed at
the moment the fatal bullet was sped on its mission of death.
The muzzle of the weapon still within the lappel of the
pocket, he brought it to an angle of about forty- five degrees.
" e There, that's the way Myers held it, only he was getting
up, not standing erect.'" Saying this, he touched the trigger.

"A sudden flash — the half suppressed sound of a shot —
and Clement L. Vallandigham, with an expression of agony,
exclaimed: e My God, I've shot myself!' and reeled toward
the wall a wounded and dying man — wounded and dying by
his own hands.

"This happened at the hour of nine o'clock, or perhaps five
or ten minutes earlier. In a second of time Mr. McBurney,
terrified at the occurrence, rushed out of the room and along
the hall to the apartment where the jury was quartered.
Rapping at the door, he eagerly demanded that some one should
come into Mr. Yallandigham's room, as he had shot himself.
Mr. Tischnor, the constable having them in charge, was mo
mentarily absent, but several of the jurors hurried into the

526 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

room. Meantime Mr. J. C. Babbitt, whose room (No. 17) was
only next door, had heard the sound, and suspecting its cause,
also came in. He arrived first and found Mr. Vallandigham
alone leaning against the wall. He asked what had happened.

" ' I have foolishly shot myself/ said the wounded man as
he sank into a chair. 'What folly it was to try such an ex
periment ! By mistake I took up the wrong pistol.' The pistol
had dropped from his hand at the moment he fired, and was
still lying on the floor. The other one, empty and harmless,
lay on the table.

"A moment later, three or four jurors came in with Mr.
McBurney, and found Mr. Yallandigham, with clothes opened,
feeling along his abdomen in search of the bullet. He remained
thus employed and explaining the mistake he had made for
several minutes, when, growing faint, he was laid on the bed.

" In the meantime messengers had been despatched for phy
sicians, and the intelligence got out in town, and instantly the
streets were alive with persons hurrying to the hotel to ask the
truth of the story they had heard. The halls were crowded,
and the anxious, almost terror-stricken faces of the persons
inquiring after the nature of the wound and the condition of
the wounded man, made it apparent to the most casual observer
that an occurrence of no ordinary character had just taken
place.

" The three reporters who were attending the trial for the
Cincinnati morning papers were immediately on the scene, and
upon learning the nature of the occurrence, sped the news on
the lightning's wings to the journals they represented. An
hour later the news of that occurrence was being heralded under
the waves of the broad Atlantic to the people of the Old World.

" There was some difficulty in finding a physician. Three,
five, ten minutes elapsed after the departure of the messengers
before a medical man appeared. This, too, at a time of sus
pense — a time when minutes became hours in their duration ;
an occasion when time was measured by the heart's pulsations of
a wounded man. At length, however, Dr. Scoville arrived,
and following close after him Dr. Drake. An examination of
the wound and a hurried consultation followed, and the- prostrate
man was informed that his injuries were of the most serious
character, though they hoped that they might not prove to be

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIOHAM, 527

" ' Has the ball been reached ? ' said he to the physicians.

" ' No, it has not/ was the answer.

" ( Has it entered a vital part ? '

" ' We cannot tell.'

" Closing his mouth with that firmness of purpose which so
characterised him in everything, he expressed a wish that they
would ascertain and tell him the worst feature that the case
might present.

" By the time the second quarter after nine had struck, the
crowd of persons to the room of the wounded man was so
great that guards had to be placed at the foot of the stairs below
to refuse admittance to all but intimate personal friends. Mr.
Vallandigham's condition was fast becoming worse, and the
medical men were unable to reach the ball with any of their
surgical appliances. The family physician, Dr. J. C. Reeve,
of Dayton, was telegraphed to come at once to his bedside,
while Dr. "W. W. Dawson, of Cincinnati, had a similar sum
mons sent to him. The son, the law-partner, and several of
the immediate friends of Mr. Vallandigham were advised of
his condition and urged to come at once. His wife, who only
a few hours before had started to Baltimore to be present at
the burial of her brother, was telegraphed to, although his
exact condition was concealed from her. Here was a case of
life or death trembling in the balance, and science seemed to be
powerless.

" The patient at this time asked Mr. M. S. Williamson to
remain with him and assist in moving him in his bed. Others,
too, who were associated with him in his professional relations,
were requested to stay by his side and help to alleviate his
suffering.

"At ten o'clock a telegram came that Dr. Reeve had started
with the son of the wounded man, and that they would arrive
by midnight. During the next hour the symptoms did not
appear to change very materially. Frequent examinations are
made by the physicians, the wound is probed, the pulse is ob
served, the respiration taken, and finally the wounded man in
formed that he is in a very critical condition, and that if he has
anything to say, or any arrangements to make, he had better
lose no time.

" ' Only rid me of this pain in the stomach and I'll be all
right again/ is the rejoinder. The struggle of 4life with death

528 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

has begun. The might of man begins to combat with that of
the destroyer of man.

" From eleven to twelve o'clock frequent vomitings ensue
and an increase of pain. Narcotics, which have been adminis
tered sparingly hitherto, are now doubled in the doses, and
a sort of lethargy ensues. The hour of midnight finds the
wounded man comparatively easy, but with accelerated pulse
and frequent and short breathing. Soon after this he is moved
to his right side, and a hemorrhage of blood follows, a hem
orrhage which results in a loss of half a pint of blood, and
reveals the terrible nature of the wound.

" A little past one Dr. Reeve arrives, accompanied • by the
son of the unfortunate man. The family physician enters, and
with his practised eye, familiar with his patient, a conclusion
is soon arrived at — the wounded man must die.

" Mr. Yallandigham knew him and greeted him cheerily.
"' Doctor, is my wound as bad as 'that of Jake Rapp?'
referring to a man on whom the Doctor had attended, and who
had recovered.

" ' Yes, it is worse than t'hat.'

" ' Or of Lambert ? ' referring to another and similar one.

" ' No, not worse than Lambert/

" '"Well, if you can get this pain from my stomach, I will
get along.' This with his peculiar smile of self-reliance.

" At this juncture Mr. Vallandigham's son appeared and
entered the room. On approaching the bedside of his father,
tears filled the eyes of the young man, and there was a look
of tender affection from those of the parent that bespoke the
wealth of that parent's love.

" Placing his hand on the head of his boy, he fondled for a
moment the object of his 'love. { Charley/ said he fondly, 'be
a good boy.' After a short time he again turned to him, say
ing : ' You are tired ; you had better go to bed.'

" Weeping, the young man was led from the room.

"Here Dr. Reeve announced to his patient that he was
soon going to administer some more opiates to him, and that
if he had anything to say either in the way of messages to his
friends or in relation to his business affairs, he had better do
so now. All who were in the room left the wounded man
with his physician, and their conference continued for ten or
fifteen minutes. Of course what transpired then and there is

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 529

entitled to the sanctity of privacy, and should not be made
public even if we were able to do so.

"From this time until four o'clock there was but little
change in Mr. Vallandigham's condition. His breathing grew
more labored, his pulse quicker, and at times he seemed to be
in great pain. About two o'clock, Rev. Mr. Haight, of the
Presbyterian church of the village, called, and was admitted.
He asked the doctor if he might be allowed to speak a few
words to the wounded man. 'No, I cannot permit it/ was
the reply.

" Mr. Vallandigham, casting a glance at the reverend gen
tleman, appeared to appreciate the object that prompted the
visit.

" Mr. Williamson here said : ' Mr. Vallandigham, I sup
pose you have been told that your case is very critical. You
oughtn't to be discouraged, though, but keep your spirits up.
That's half the battle.'

(( ( Yes,' answered the sufferer, closing his mouth with the
old well-known expression of determination, and speaking from
between his clenched teeth, ' Yes, sir, it's all the battle.' He
then closed his eyes, but in a few minutes opened them again,
fixing his gaze steadily on Mr. "Williamson's countenance, said
in the same tone, but enunciating with difficulty : ' This may
be all right yet. • I may, however, be mistaken, .but I am a
firm believer in that good old Presbyterian doctrine of pre
destination.' In fact, from the beginning, the strong, deter
mined spirit of the man — the spirit that had carried him safely
through many a well-known perilous complication, and done
battle for the right on many a hard-fought field — defied ap
proaching death, and fought inch by inch the grim spectre
whose gaunt arms were already closing around him with fatal
grasp. Said a gentleman who stood by his bedside during the
whole of that awful ordeal : ' The man had determined, despite
the bullet in his vitals, despite doctors' opinions, ay, despite
fate itself, not to die.' During all this time and up to with
in a few minutes of the final agony, he lay with compressed
lips and closed eyes, and bore with the fortitude of an Indian
chief the agonies of death. ISTot a groan escaped him, nor a
word save in answer to a question, or when giving directions
as to change of position.

" At four o'clock A. M. the symptoms were thought to be

34

530 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

more alarming. Several friends of the wounded man, who
had lain down to get a snatch of sleep, were roused up. The
son appeared at the bedside again, the associates in trial now in
progress, Judge Haynes, his professional partner Judge Mc-
Kemy, and several other intimate personal friends who had
arrived during the night, were grouped about the room and
gathered around the bed. In the past two hours a very notice
able change had come over the appearance of the wounded
man. His breathing was still more difficult, and he was man
ifestly fast losing strength. It was thought that his hour had
come. The gray dawn of morning twilight was just giving
way to the light of day. In the trees on the opposite side of
the street might be heard the song of birds, and the sidewalks
below were just beginning to resound to the footsteps of early-
rising pedestrians.

" By the side of the bed, and fanning his father, sat young
Vallandigham. At the foot sat the venerable Judge Smith ;
on either side were his professional associates, Judges Haynes
and McKemy, and Messrs. Hume, Millikin, and others. The
sound of approaching wheels was heard, and in a moment the
physician who had been summoned from Cincinnati drove up
to the door. A moment later he was in the room. He had
driven twenty-eight miles through the dark in four hours, and
found out that the patient he had come to see was beyond
human power to save. He could only alleviate the suffering,
not cure the malady of him whom he had come to see.

" Five, six and seven o'clock were successively struck, and
the strong man lay motionless, and seemingly almost insensible
on the bed. Once or twice he muttered something that indi
cated that his mind was wandering, but at no time did courage
seem to forsake him. It seemed to be a struggle for life, with
the odds fearfully against it.

1 ( Shortly after seven o'clock Tom McGehan, the man whom
he was here to defend, appeared under escort of an officer from
the jail. The man charged with murder, who has always been
represented as being cold and remorseless as the grave, could
not repress his tears. They fell thick and fast, and, weeping,
he was led from the room back to his cell. '"

"Nearly at the same time McGehanVwife and children
"were admitted to gaze upon the one whom they had hoped
would be the deliverer of their father and husband, but who,

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 531

in his zeal for their cause, had taken his own life. This was
one of the most affecting scenes of the day.

" From about three o'clock this morning until the hour of
his death the patient seemed to suffer intense agony. Although
partially under the influence of opiates, he was still conscious,
and would readily answer the few questions addressed him by
his friends and physicians.

" About half-past nine o'clock, after an unusually violent
struggle, the eyes began to grow glassy and the face to assume
that rigidly infallible sign of death. He remained perfectly
quiet in this position for about fifteen minutes, when, by a
sudden movement, the body stretched its full length in the
bed, the eyes closed, and with a deep-drawn sigh the dauntless
soul deserted its tenement of clay, and C. L. Yallandigham
was dead."

The foregoing is from the Cincinnati Enquirer : the follow
ing from the Commercial, giving a few additional incidents of
the closing scene : —

" The first stir of life outside was the twitter of swallows
in the eaves. The cold, gray light of the morning disputed
sway with the burning lamp, but when that was removed at
last as no longer necessary, it seemed to have consumed the
last ray of light in the face of the dying man. A deathly
pallor overspread the features; the finger nails of the right
hand, which from the first rested on the pillow beside his face,
while the other grasped and was buried in the bed-clothes,
turned blue. The time of dissolution drew nigh. With the
earliest light came hosts of friends. The hotel was again filled
with visitors, and the street in front was thronged with pity
ing people.

" But that terrible waiting for death was sorely protracted.
It was a heaviness that weighed everybody down, and will
make that sad morning forever memorable in the houses and
homes of Lebanon.

" The great strong nature of the man struggled hard with
fate, and gallantly contended for life. Consciousness was
retained almost to the last moment. It looked out clear from
those once magnificent eyes, and sounded in the intelligent
answers to questions. As an instance : At 9 o'clock too much

532 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

pressure, by leaning on the foot of the bed, caused one of the
rollers to give way, thus imparting a slight jar to the
prostrate man.

" Mr. Yallandigham opened his eyes, and turning his head,
asked distinctly : l What is that ? '

"Earlier in the morning he heard some one winding
a watch. Said Mr. Yallandigham : e Judge Hume, have my
watch wound — it winds in the stem/

"Around the bed now gathered the immediate friends —
Judge D. A. Haynes, Judge J. E. McKemy, Jno. M. Sprigg,
Mr. Williamson, Jas. L. Yallandigham (lawyer) of Hamilton,
Jas. Yallandigham (printer) of Hamilton, Job. E. Owens,
Judge Hume, Mr. Millikin, Mr. McBurney, Judge Smith of
Lebanon, Judge Pope, Drs. Reeve, Dawson, Scoville and
Drake, and many others.

" Charley came over to his father's left, for he had now for
the first time since being placed on it the night before, turned
off his right side and lay upon his back. A brief struggle :
the uneasy rolling of the head and movement of the hands, the
labored breathing, the glazing eye, the tightening of the skin
upon the face and the dropping of the lower jaw; a few
groans escaped the beautifully arched chest, the iris disappeared,
leaving the white of the eye only to be seen, a few gasps for the
fast fleeting breath, and Clement L. Yallandigham parted
with life." '

The news of Mr. Yallandigham's death was everywhere
received with the deepest and most intense sorrow. Men of
all parties sincerely mourned his sudden and tragic departure
The following we copy from the Dayton Ledger : —

" HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED IN DAYTON.

" While the bulletins were flashing all the forenoon of Satur
day their thrilling announcements of the dying condition of
the distinguished sufferer at Lebanon, it was touching and
gratifying to note how nobly and with one voice our people
evinced in their anxiety, their eagerness to grasp something to
build a hope upon, even in the face of the most hopeless
intelligence.

"Upon street corners, in many groups, in the crowded

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 533

market-place, within the public offices of the city and county,
in the rooms of the dying man's professional brethren, as well
as in his household and familiar circles — over all hung the
cloud of coming woe. As the bolt was hurled and the terrible
suspense was terminated by the stroke of death, all felt
and took mournful joy in repeating, without regard to creed
or political principles or condition of life, that the memory of
this citizen whose fame is national, would ever be a treasure for
each townsman who had enjoyed the honor and pleasure of
personal intimacy.

" Tenderest solicitude was constantly uttered for the darling
boy of the heroic statesman — i for Charley/ There was not a
man whose son is dear to him who did not breathe a deep wish
or fervent prayer for the noble lad in this his great sorrow.

" For the stricken wife, whose terrible grief was even thqn
accumulating upon her head, not a woman whose husband is
near and dear to her who did not entreat the All-Merciful to
stay, if might be, the heavy hand of the destroyer, and to buoy
up with the grace of our heavenly Father her A crushed .and
agonised soul.

" It is one of the noblest traits in this distinguished T man
that all who knew him most loved him most. Here in Dayton,
where the most intense and searching criticism has been daily
maintained over his life, he was most tenderly beloved.

" This intrepid knight, confronting the nation with aQ] its
warlike energies invoked, in his convictions of right and his
defence of constitutional justice, is this day, and for many years
will be, mourned with the deep, heartfelt blessings of the poor
and friendless. This noble champion has found the time and
means throughout his eventful life to wield in his right arm
the weapons of the law in defence of many, many poor
neighbors, friendless young men, many a poor woman of plain -
apparel and station, and earned the blessed reward of the tears
of grateful poverty which fall upon the tomb of the trusty
counsellor whose voice is now hushed.

" Let national halls and civic chambers echo the well-earned
praise of the statesman ; but the tender affection and hearty
sympathy which the poor in life feel for their generous and
magnanimous friend in need are worthy to be reckoned in the
jewels of the fame of Clement L. Yallandigham.

" The strong, robust nature of the friendships of the states-

534 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

man had drawn to him hosts of friends who ' were grappled to
his soul with hooks of steel.' Never was there a man whose
public contests had drawn so many enemies who could so truly
boast the e friends I have and their adoption tried ? are mine
still, and in his dying hours rallied to him nobly and most
knightly. Around his bedside, through his protracted struggle
with the last enemy by night and by day, they stood by him.
Among these are mentioned Honorables Judge Haynes, Judge
McKemy, Judge Dwyer, Messrs. Gillespie, Greble, Bettelon,
and others.

" Special mention is due to the unwearied exertions, pro
longed and exhaustive as only the physician's are of the family
medical attendant, Dr. J. C. Reeve. At the first summons this
heroic man, accompanied by the heart- stricken son, repaired in
the night to the side of the patient and reached him at midnight.
Throughout the night and until the afternoon of the departure
from Lebanon with the remains for home, there was not a
moment in which this zealous physician was not in active and
continuous devotion to his charge, applying all that the art of
medicine could accomplish for relief, and watching tenderly
over the dying man.

" But Vallandigham is dead. The nation weeps ; and well
it ^ may, for it has lost a noble son. The State of Ohio where
he was born and where he spent the best and most active years
of his life, the city of Dayton where he was intimately known
and beloved, and where he was recognised as the head of his
profession and of his party, feel his loss most keenly. The
earnest sympathies of the entire community, irrespective of
politics or religion, are tendered the widow and the son of the
illustrious deceased.

" Vallandigham's name is perhaps as widely known as that
of any other public man of the United States. His career has
been eventful and varied. His public course has been con
spicuous, commanding the most enthusiastic admiration of some
and exciting the severest denunciation of others. He was a man
of the strongest convictions, unflinching will and great courage.
The whole country knows his qualities as a statesman and the
power of his intellect.

"As a lawyer he occupied a position in the front-rank of
his profession.

"The people of this community without distinction of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 535

party feel a common grief at the sad accident which so suddenly
terminated his life.

"He was fast extinguishing by his manly and social qualities
all the asperities that existed in former times, and the regret
felt at this calamity by his neighbors and fellow-citizens is
heartfelt and universal."

A little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the mournful cor
tege, escorting all that was mortal of Clement L. "Vallandigham
started from Lebanon. The carriages and the hearse contain
ing his remains were driven as rapidly as possible, and about
six o'clock approached the city of Dayton. Several gentlemen
came out to meet the body ; and it is probable a large number
would have come had it not been for the dark clouds which
had been gathering all afternoon, and which now hung gloomily
and threateningly over the city. As the cortege reached the
summit of a hill, so that those composing it could overlook
Dayton, a dark and most sombre cloud hung over the city, and
blackened the sky down to the northern horizon. Against the
darkness of the sky, the spires, towers, and pinnacles of the
churches and public buildings stood out so ghastly white, like
sheeted ghosts, by the contrast, that it was startlingly awful in
appearance ; and as they entered the city, a fearful storm burst
over them, the thunders rolled solemnly above their heads, the
lightning flashed frightfully, and the rain poured down in tor
rents ; and thus, amid the wild convulsions of the elements,
Clement L. Vallandigham was carried to his home, never more
to enlighten it by his genial presence in life, nor make it happy
by his kind hospitality. In gloomy silence, the mournful
burden was borne through the door and deposited in the room
which so many times had been made joyous by his pleasant
humor, and where he had spent so many delightful hours of
domestic happiness.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE FUNERAL.

THE funeral of Clement L. Vallandigham took~place~in
Dayton on June 20, 1871. It was an occasion of the deepest
solemnity, eloquently testifying to his great virtues, his wide
popularity. The city was thronged with sincere mourners.
From the east, the west, the north, the south, crowded trains
came in the night preceding, and the morning of the sad day
brought new hosts. Delegations from Cincinnati, St. Louis,
Chicago, and other Western cities arrived by every train, and
the hotels were filled to overflowing. From the country
around Dayton great numbers of persons flocked in, and early
in the day the streets were massed with people, and the broad
avenues alive with vehicles of all descriptions, the general in
terest and feeling deepening with each hour. Never before
was so great a multitude assembled at a funeral in this region,
and touching indeed was the feeling of sorrow which seemed
to pervade the vast concourse. Dayton was a mourning city ;
many of her houses draped in black, and the national flag tied
with crape, floating from the cornice of the Court House;
business was entirely suspended, stores and public buildings
being closed, and an atmosphere of gloom overshadowing all.
Faces were grave with regret and voices hushed into tender
ness, while the people went about the streets talking of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 537

Clement L. Vallandigham, his nobleness, his charity, his legal
ability, his eloquence, his courage, his good and great gifts —
all were recounted with an earnestness which of itself told
unerringly how deeply he was revered and beloved. In the
general sorrow which prevailed, political differences and anta
gonisms seemed to melt away. Republicans met with Demo
crats in hearty regret for him who had gone, remembering only
his nobleness, his high graces of mind and heart. All ages,
classes, and religious sects knew no division in their sorrow,
no separation in their yearning wish to do him honor.

At 9 o'clock on the morning of June 20th, Mr. Vallandig-
ham's residence on First street was opened to the public, thus
affording all an opportunity of looking upon him for the last
time. That peaceful, happy home ! amongst its beautiful
flowers and clustering shrubbery it stood saddened and desolate.
He wrho had ever given his friends true welcome within its
walls was indeed there, but how changed ! Silent the eloquent
lip, closed the beaming eyes, and stilled forever the warm,
brave heart.' In his last sleep he lay, within the hall of his
home, attired for the grave, his face calm, composed, bring
ing back clearly the man so truly revered by the vast crowd
which slowly and sadly filed past.

On a catafalque covered with black velvet, and placed in the
centre of the hall, rested the coffin. It was of rosewood, richly
and beautifully finished ; on each side were four massive silver
handles with silver tassels; it was ornamented with Masonic
emblems, engraved on silver shields set between the handles.
On the lid was a broad plate with the inscription : —
CLEMENT LAIKD VALLANDIGHAM.
Born July 29^, 1820.
Died June 17th, 1871.

538 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

From 9 o'clock for some hours an unbroken tide of people
passed through the hall. It was an immense motley crowd,
but swayed by deepest feeling ; strong men and gentle women
burst into tears as they gazed for the last time upon the dead.
He had been an idol amongst them, enthroned in the hearts
of the people as few public men have ever been or can ever
be.

Through the hall the visitors passed out to the side piazza,
and from thence through the yard of the house next on the
east, a portion of the fence having for the time been taken
down. About the hour of 11 A. M., the doors of Mr. Val-
landigham's home were closed to all persons, and preparations
commenced for the last rites. Meanwhile, the streets through
which the funeral cortege was to pass were closely lined with
people and vehicles. Each arriving train swelled the multi
tude ; numbers came from Toledo, Cleveland, Chillicothe, and
densely crowded trains from Springfield, Hamilton, and Cin
cinnati. The Court House steps- and the balconies of the
hotels were filled long before the procession was formed.

The funeral service began at 1 o'clock. The coffin had
been taken from the hall to the parlor, where were gathered
sorrowing, sympathising friends. The house was crowded,
while the piazza, the front and side yards, the pavement and
streets, were thronged with people. By the time the service
began, the crowd in the street in front of the house had
increased to thousands of men, women and children. Opposite
the house, and for squares, was a compact mass of human
beings, anxious to look once again upon the well-known face
of their beloved fellow-citizen. When the Masonic Order
came up, with members of the Dayton Bar, and other societies

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 539

following, it became necessary for the marshals of the day,
assisted by the police, to clear the way ; this was done, however,
quietly, and without trouble. The funeral ceremonies were
conducted by Rev. E. P. "Wright, Rector of Christ Church,
who read the Episcopal burial-service. In his white surplice
he stood in the front door-way, and the solemn and beautiful
words sounded distinctly throughout the house, and reached
the dense crowd outside, listening in reverential silence and
with uncovered heads.

The service concluded at half-past one, and the casket was
carried to the hearse by the eight pall-bearers — Hon. George
E. Pugh, David A. Houk, John Howard, Samuel Craighead,
Elihu Thomson, O. C. Maxwell, D. K. Boyer, and W. H. Gil-
lespie — all of them residents of Dayton, with the exception
of George E. Pugh, of Cincinnati. The lid of the casket was
covered by wreaths of flowers, exquisitely mingled with Eng
lish ivy and lilies, while clusters of pure white flowers were
grouped about in the hearse, which was of ebony and silver.
At a quarter before two, the funeral procession moved in the
following order:

Grand Marshal. City Police.

Knights Templar Brass Band.

The Masonic Order.

Hearse and Pall-bearers.

The Clergy in carriages.

The mourners in carriages occupied the usual place. They
consisted of the following persons, Mrs. Vallandigham not
being in a condition to attend : 1st. Charles JST. Vallandigham,
his son, Judge D. A. Haynes, his law-partner, and his two

540 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM.

brothers, the Rev. James L. Vallandigham and Dr. George S.
Vallandigham ; 2d. Mrs. M. E. Robertson, his sister, Mr. and
Mrs. Oilman, and Miss Maggie Robertson, nephew and nieces ;
3d. Dr. Irving S. Vallandigham, James L. Robertson, Esq.,
Dr. John S. Robertson, and J. L. "Vallandigharn, Esq.,
nephews ; 4th. Dr. R. S. McKaig, John A. McMahon, Esq.,
and John M. Sprigg, Esq., relatives of Mrs. Vallandigham.
The remainder of the procession was made up of the Bar of
Ohio (of whom there were said to be 500 in line), the Eschol
Lodge, I. O. B. B., a Hebrew organization of Dayton, the
members of the Dayton Bar, citizens on foot and citizens in
carriages, making a line of immense length. The procession
was over half an hour in passing the Court House, moving
without making a single pause. Here alone the carriages
numbered one hundred and thirty-one, and every cross street
sending in an additional stream, the number of carriages that
gathered at the cemetery must have reached three hundred.
Not a few also of the hundreds of yeomanry united with the
procession as it moved on its solemn way.

To his last earthly rest so passed Clement Laird Vallandig
ham. Through the streets which never again should know his
quick, firm step — beneath the shadow of homes where his
name had been a household word, and his presence ever
a delight — along the avenues of the beautiful city, for years his
chosen home, he went — to "the City of the Dead" — a
great multitude following him, and sorrowing "that they
should see his face no more." O scene of tender, affecting
solemnity ! The soft summer sky overhead, the hushed city,
the stately hearse, the long line of carriages, the imposing
column of societies, orders, and officials, the vast throng of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 541

mourning people, all thrilled by one common sorrow, stricken
by one mighty bereavement ! Slowly the sad procession moved
on, reaching at last the grave in Woodland Cemetery. This
was in Mr. Vallandigham's lot near the centre of the cemetery,
a beautiful spot. Here in expectation of the great attendance,
ropes had been put across, within which only the family, im
mediate friends, and persons directly interested in the last rites,
were admitted. On arriving at the grave, the family and
nearest friends placed themselves beside the casket on one
side, whilst the remaining sides within the ropes were occupied
by tin members of the Bar and the members of the Masonic
fraternity, who defiled in two lines. All being in readiness,
the Master of the Masons, with the Chaplain and others selected
to conduct the last ceremonies, advanced from the outer circle
to the edge of the grave, and repeated the touching burial-
service of the ancient order. Then as the last words of the
prayer died away, the subdued slipping of the ropes was heard
as they were drawn out from beneath the casket. Now came
each Mason, according to their ancient rites, casting into the
tomb the little green sprig, telling of their ever-living regard
for the memory of their beloved and honored brother. And
then what remained but "dust to dust, earth to earth"? — the
" clods of the valley " covering the precious remains and hid
ing them from mortal sight ! And while mourning friends
slowly returned to their carriages, and the sad dirges of the
band \vere heard, the great crowd, sweeping away the slight
barriers, began to press round the grave, eager to see the spot
where had been laid the man they loved and admired so truly.
And is this then the very last of earth for him ? Even so ;
he has passed from the stage of life, and " the places which knew

542 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

him once, shall know him no more again forever." Farewell,
then, pure patriot soul ! true, brave heart, farewell ! He has
gone ; but we catch the echo of his words, long ago spoken,
though with a different meaning, yet we would write them on
our hearts, and with the eye of faith read them above the tomb
where he sleeps so well : —

" ' Resurgam? I shall rise again.
And it will be a glorious resurrection"

The following interesting incident in connection with the
funeral, it may not be out of place here to record. On that day
a large mass-meeting of the Democracy was assembled at St.
Clairsville. General George W. Morgan, a political and
personal friend of Mr. Yallandigham, was to address the
meeting. He took the stand at 2 o'clock, just as the funeral
procession was pursuing its sad and solemn march to the silent
city of the dead, and commenced thus : —

" Fellow- Citizens : — -Death has suddenly removed from the
scenes of action one of our most distinguished statesmen. Yal
landigham is no more. Never again will his voice be heard in
council. Never more will the people be inspired by the mag
netism of his presence, or roused to action by the inspiration of
his eloquence. He is dead, but his name will live in the hearts
of his countrymen. Now while I speak a vast concourse of his
mourning friends and admirers are following his remains to the
tomb. In respect for his memory let us stand uncovered while
his remains are being placed in their last earthly home. [The
entire crowd rose to their feet.] The sod of the valley now
rests upon his bosom, but his spirit is with us here to-day,
and the highest eulogy we can pay to him will be to faithfully
continue battling for the cause of the Constitution and the
people."

"We have already mentioned that Mrs. Vallandigham was
not in a condition to attend the funeral of her husband. ^ Sen-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 543

sitive and delicate by nature, her terrible bereavement crushed
her to the very earth. She received the tidings of her beloved
husband's death while standing beside the coffin of an endeared
brother. And so from " the house of mourning/' she went to
her own desolated home in Dayton — a long and weary journey,
which told heavily upon her exhausted strength and stricken
heart. For some weeks after her husband's funeral, Mrs. Val-
landigham was confined to her bed from prostration induced
by the bitter calamity which had so cruelly swept over her.
When her strength seemed a little to return, upon medical
advice, she was taken by her friends to her early home in Cum
berland, Maryland, and all hoped the change of scene and resi
dence would soothe and revive her. But the wound was too
deep for any "balm" to reach, the shadow too dark ever to be
lifted. Day by day she faded, her frail hold on life relaxing,
her strength ebbing, until at last the weary heart ceased its
throbbings, and was forever at rest. Mrs. Vallandigham died
on the morning of the 13th of August, peacefully falling
asleep — the last letter her beloved husband had written her
closely clasped to her breast. Thus she left what had become
to her a world of sorrow and sighing. Not long " divided by
death's cold stream " from the husband of her love, she crossed
over after him, "to where beyond those waters it is peace."
And so with her " it is well."

CHAPTEE XXIY.

TEIBUTES TO HIS MEMOEY.

THE news of the tragic death of Mr. Yallandigham pro
duced a profound sensation all over the country. Scarcely a
newspaper of any reputation in the land failed to pay some
tribute to his memory. A large number of Bar meetings and
meetings of citizens were held in various places, where most
flattering testimonials were rendered to the many excellences of
his character and his abilities. It may not perhaps be usual to
publish in biographies such testimonials and newspaper tributes ;
yet as future generations must judge of a man not only by the
lets of his life, but also by the opinions expressed by those
3ontemporary with him and the feelings developed by his death,
wv venture to lay before our readers such testimonials and tri
butes to his memory as have been brought to our notice.

"MEETING OF THE BAR.

"Dayton, 0., June 19, 1871.

"A meeting of the bar was held this morning. Hon. S.
Bolton in a few appropriate words announced to the Court of
Common Pleas the death of Yallandigham, and in accordance
with his motion the Court adjourned until next Friday in respect
to the memory of the deceased. In the Superior Court, Samuel
Craighead, Esq., alluded in a feeling manner to the death of
Vallandigham, accompanying the motion for an adjournment
with a strong and eloquent tribute to his memory.

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 545

" Judge Lowe made the following response :

"In the remarks and suggestions which have just been
made I perfectly agree. The terrible accident which has brought
death to our friend and brother, and unfeigned sorrow to in
numerable hearts throughout this broad land of ours, from
ocean to ocean, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, weighs so
heavily upon us who were his familar friends, that the per
formance of our ordinary duties in this place, for the present
at least, is impossible. While I have at this time no formal
eulogy to pronounce upon Mr. Vallandigham, I am constrained
to add a lew words to the testimony of the great multitude
who everywhere are reminding themselves and others of his
virtues and sorrowing over his untimely end. Of his abilities
as a lawyer and an orator it is needless to speak. They have
secured for him an honored name, not only throughout our
nation, but wherever the English language is spoken through
out the world. We, however, have seen and known him also
amid the gentle amenities of social life, and we know, what
perhaps the world does not, that he was an affectionate and
faithful husband, a most tender father, a kindly neighbor, a
just and upright citizen. We know the warmth of his attach
ment to his friends and the readiness with which his heart re
sponded to every manifestation of personal regard, that kindness
always melted him as the sun the snow. When we remember
the stormy life he lived, his firm belief that Providence was
still preparing and training him for distinguished usefulness,
and that prosperity in the future would make ample amends for
disappointment in the past, we can easily understand his ex
pression of confidence during Friday night that God would
not allow such an accident at such a time to end his life, and
we stand in awe and wonder at the different ordering of Him
who is indeed inscrutable and whose ways are past finding out.
To me, as his friend, it is a matter affording great satisfaction
to know that to the end of life, amidst all the sophistries of
modern infidelity, he held fast to the faith in God and His Holy
Word, and in His Son, the Divine Saviour of mankind, which
he received in childhood at his mother's knee. Could the
silent lips now speak, they would say, as we must, * that while
God's ways are not as our ways, yet the Lord of all the earth
surely doeth right.7 At this moment Burke's solemn reflection
rises naturally to our lips, 'What shadows we are, what

35

546 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

shadows we pursue ! ' We look forward upon our pathway as
shining before us through distant years, when perhaps an
open grave yawns at our very feet. A man's heart deviseth
his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. Shall not each one
of us be instructed by this most sudden mournful event,

4 To so live

That when the summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of Death,
We go not, like the quarry slaves, at night,
Scourged to their dungeons ; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach the grave
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams ' ?

" The Court thereupon adjourned until Wednesday morn
ing at nine o'clock.

"At the bar-meeting this afternoon, Senator Peter Odlin
alluded to the excellent character of the deceased. There was
no man living in his day that commanded more intensely the
attachment of his friends than Mr. Vallandigham.

" Mr. Odlin also paid a beautiful tribute to the courage and
sincerity of the deceased, and waiving the political difference
which he had with him, acknowledged the mark that he had
made upon his own age in whatever capacity he had appeared.
But Mr. Odlin paid an especial tribute to his manliness as a
member of the legal profession, how free he was from every
thing that was not honest and true ; how sincere, square and
pecuniarily incorruptible he always appeared, and really was.
From this he touchingly glided into the peculiarly accumulated
griefs which had fallen upon Mr. "Ws wife and family, adding
to the death of a brother that also of a husband.

" A committee was appointed to report resolutions expressive
of the feelings of the Dayton bar, consisting of the following
gentlemen : Geo. W. Houk, Lewis B. Gunckel, Henderson
Elliott, Samuel Bolton, J. H. Baggott, E. W. Davies, E. S.
Young, Adam Clay, and George W. Moyer. The meeting then
adjourned till to-morrow at 10 o'clock.

" MEETING OF THE BAR.

" June 20.

" The members of the Dayton bar met in adjourned meeting
at the court-house at ten o'clock, many celebrated lawyers and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 547

jurists from abroad being in attendance. "We have seldom seen
a sadder assemblage of men gathered in a single apartment.
There were young lawyers just starting in the profession, and
aged jurists who had climbed the dizzy steeps of fame, sitting
side by side and sharing in the common sorrow. The appear
ance of the meeting was inexpressibly pathetic.

" Hon. Peter Odlin occupied the chair. He stated that a
committee had been appointed the previous day to draft resolu
tions to be reported at the present meeting. Distinguished
gentlemen were present, and, as the committee were not entirely
prepared for their report, it wrould give those present great
pleasure to hear from some of them in regard to their deceased
brother. All would be very happy to listen to some remarks
from Judge Thurman.

" Senator Thurman arose, and, with visible emotion, spoke
as follows : —

" Mr. Chairman : — At a bar meeting like this, composed of
gentlemen of different political sentiments, assembled to pay a
tribute of respect to a deceased professional brother, any remarks
other than those touching his professional character, or his
character as a man, would obviously be out of place. I suppose
that this consideration must necessarily abbreviate what I have
to say, if indeed brevity were not greatly to be desired on this
occasion.

" Of the professional character of Mr. Vallandigham I have
no personal knowledge. I never saw him try a case ; I never
heard him make a legal argument. I have read some of his
printed arguments that were characterised by that force of mind,
that felicity of expression that marked every production of his
pen. But in the actual struggles of the bar I never saw him in
my life. And yet I know he must have been a great lawyer
by the reputation he attained in a city whose bar is second to
none in the State, and where no ordinary man could attain the
standard he attained. And I also know it well from my
knowledge of the man himself — a knowledge extending
through thirty years of his life. I know he had that quickness
of apprehension, that grasp of mind, that sturdiness of pur
pose, that earnestness of will, that felicity of expression, that
magnetic eloquence and that untiring industry which could not
fail to achieve success at the bar, when coupled with an integ
rity of character, both in his public and private career, which
no man ever called in question.

548 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLAKDIGHAM.

" I know, therefore, that he must have been a great lawyer.
I saw evidences of it in the sad circumstance that produced his
death ; for he had one remarkable trait of character that per
haps brought him to his untimely end. In whatever cause he
embarked — be it political, be it moral, be it professional —
he threw his whole soul into it. It seemed impossible for it
to be otherwise. Many a time have I met him in political
conventions, or in social intercourse, when political or moral
subjects became the topic of conversation. Many a time I have
agreed with him, but not infrequently have I disagreed. And
yet I could not help being struck with the fact, that however
much to my mind it might appear untrue, he never failed to
be thoroughly convinced of its truth himself. His miud was
so constituted that his theories were truth itself to him. how
ever much to others they might seem unsound.

" And now, with that eagerness of mind, that ardor to which
I have alluded,- he prosecuted every cause which he espoused,
and I can not help thinking, after reading with careful and
painful interest the circumstances of his death, that he owed it
to this trait of his character. He had a theory of the defence
of his client, whether right or wrong I know not, and if I had
an opinion in regard to the matter it would not be proper to
express it. But I have no doubt it was truth itself to him.
I have no doubt it was as a revelation to him. I have no
doubt that he believed it as much as he believed in his own
existence, and that in his eagerness to impress that belief on
others, in that ardor with which he threw himself into his
cause, in the efforts which he made to impress upon his asso
ciate counsel, not only the probability, but the actual truth of
his theory, he lost that prudence which characterises most men,
and seized and made fatal use of that weapon by which he
came to his untimely end.

" Mr. President, many a lawyer has lost his health, and
even his life, in the pursuit of his profession, by an overworked
brain, by sickness contracted in the exposure that sometimes
attends a professional career. By agitation of mind, loss of
happiness, and sometimes loss of friendship, men have become
wearied of life and sunk gradually into the grave. But no
man that I ever knew, or ever heard of, lost his life in so
dramatic and heroic an exercise of his profession ; no man ever

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 549

had so thorough and complete an absorption in his cause as our
friend.

" Most grateful to his friends is the fact that, without re
gard to party, without regard to political subjects, without
regard to any subject whatever, there is now one universal
voice of lament, one universal expression of sorrow through
out the length and breadth of the land.

" At the conclusion of Senator Thurman's speech Judge
McKemy, of Dayton, spoke briefly and feelingly in eulogy of
the deceased, alluding to the kind relations that had always
existed between himself and Mr. Vallandigham.

" Hon. S. S. Cox, of New York, formerly an honored son
of Ohio, was called upon. He spoke in his usual eloquent
manner, his voice being frequently inaudible fro:.ii profound
feeling.

" He said:—

" Mr. President : — I have been some two nights and a day
upon the cars coming hither, and I am almost unfitted by
reason of physical exhaustion,as well by reasons of an emo
tional nature, from making any consecutive speech, or even
linking consecutive thought. Judge Thurman has well defined
the lines of character that marked Mr. Vallandigham. He
spoke specially about his relations to the bar and his legal
accomplishments. In that high forum he showed those char
acteristics which came, I think, from his early rigid Presby
terian discipline.

"But I think, Mr. President, it would be unjust were I not
to say — what has doubtless occurred to gentlemen more in
timately and recently associated with him "" here — that within
the last few years he toned to a better harmony many of the
attributes belonging to our discordant partisan politics. I think
that members of the bar, with whom he differed, as he did with
me often on political matters — I think that members of the
Democratic party, and especially gentlemen of the opposite
party, have found that as he grew older he had a larger hu
manity.

" As time walked along with him, hand in hand, it seemed
that his character became more mellow, graceful and gentle.
It seems to me that that is the experience of our friends here

550 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

who are listening so intently to my words. It is this ripe,
mellow and graceful finale to his life of struggle which makes
this the most mournful day Ohio ever knew. In our early
associations, Mr. President, especially in Congress during the
war, he showed those rigid outlines of character which seemed
to many proof of uncharitableness and bitterness. His recent
revelations in regard to our national politics have not only a
kindly but a national significance. By his ' new departure ? he
sought to draw with cords of common love and mutual patriot
ism, men of all parties, and men of no party, and men of both
parties, into a common and kindly unity.

" I have known the deceased, Mr. President, in many rela
tions. When I first knew him he was in the Legislature.
Even then he was a leader of the people, although not more
than twenty-one years of age. I think that he was, perhaps,
the man who did more than any other in Ohio to inaugurate
your new constitution. Of that, Senator Thurman can speak
more definitely. Yes, I am sure I am right. My first incident
with our friend was, strange to say, about international law.
When I came back to Ohio from college, I sent him a little
brochure which I had .written upon the work of Hugo Gro-
tius. Mr. Yallandigham read it, and with a kind, scholarly
and careful sympathy wrote me a letter of praise about it, long
before I ever knew him, or expected to be on Foreign Affairs
Committees, or go to live in New York city to try international
cases before Claims Commissioners. I met him afterward in
1853 at the Democratic State Convention of that year. It was
a wild, fierce Convention.

"Mr. Vallandigham was President of that Convention.
It was there I first saw displayed his command of men, his
tact, his indomitable courage and parliamentary skill. I was
impressed greatly with his courage, earnestness, and the incom
parable skill which he there displayed. I then observed, also,
what I afterward had occasion to know in public debate at
Washington, that no man was more thoroughly versed in par
liamentary law, or its practice, than he. In the language of a
quaint old English author, he wielded his rapier as if it were
a 'lissome lath/ He never failed to make his mark either
upon the gallery or upon the members. He was always care
fully heard when he spoke. In a body which measures men
by instinct — and at that time full of great debaters — he had

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIQHAM. 551

no peer. Those who knew him best as a painstaking scholar,
will not fail to recall his painstaking labor limce. He worked
on his most elaborate speeches under the lamp. But while he
was seldom satisfied with his matured efforts, he always liked
to have his friends like his impromptu efforts. Never shall I
forget the fierce, defiant, bold, able, logical and legal debate on
the conscription law. Whether he was right or wrong, he
believed he was right. He hurled his terrible philippics with
such defiant energy of utterance, coupled with an unfailing
grace of manner, that even the five thousand opponents in the
galleries gave him their plaudits.

" But, sir, I come here not to analyse his character, or to
speak of political associations, but simply as a friend who never
differed with him in friendly relation, though often in other
regards. But I have often received hospitality at his hands,
in your city, and his house has always been so open — his kind
and noble bereaved wife [sensation] has always been so ready
to welcome her husband's friends — that I would prefer to
speak of him in social and personal matters. \ I come as all
you feel — from our families — from our wives and sisters and
mothers and children — to lay something before the widow and
the orphan boy that will relieve the desolation of the one by
our sympathy, and direct the other along that path of public
and private probity and honor his father trod. In fine, I come
as a friend to lay a June rose on his bier — to speak of my
friend, who is, alas ! gone, but whose memory remains. It
will last as long as your beautiful Miami Valley, where he will
sleep his last sleep.

"General McCook was the next speaker. He said: —

" I did not desire to utter a word upon this occasion which
has brought us together. I understood it would not be expected
from me, and I would be silent now if I had not been named
by the gentleman upon my right, and but for the fact that my
silence might subject me to misconstruction.

" I have known Mr. Yallandigham longer, perhaps, than
any person who has been of recent years associated with him.
I commenced the study of Latin in a school taught by his
brother, and where he himself was a pupil. Our relations from
that time on, through almost the entire period of our lives,

552 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

have been friendly, and for years and years there was not a
line of difference between us. I have not known him in his
professional career of late years, for I was a young man when
he left the part of the State where I was born and in which I
resided. I have never been associated with him in the trial
of a cause, and, as Judge Thurman has remarked, I never
heard him try a case. My experience of his ability was con
fined to a single professional relation that I sustained to him.
I was retained by him to argue his right to a seat in Congress
against the distinguished gentleman whom I am glad to see
attending this meeting to-day. I mean Mr. L. D. Campbell.
That case involved no questions that required great professional
ability. The questions were mere statutory questions upon the
right to vote, and, in some cases, upon the powers of the court.

" But I know, as Judge Thurman says, that he must have
been a great lawyer, for he had the qualities which at the bar
always command success. I know that in that direction he
was a tireless worker, and it has always seemed to me that if
he had a fault at all, it was this wonderful persistence upon
separate facts in a case, not necessary, as it seemed to my mind,
to the determination of it. He was unwearied in the pursuit
of every fact. Details, irksome to so many — I do not know
that we ever reach generals successfully without the closest at
tention to details — commanded his careful attention.

"He had great force of will, he had great energy of
character, which will win the race against intellect among men
at the bar, and anywhere in the struggles of life. He was a
man who, as Mr. Thurman has well said, never had a doubt.
His mind seemed never poised in deliberation, but he seemed
to speak always with the sincerity of an assured conviction that
nobody could shake and that no enemy could overcome.

"We mourn the circumstances of his death. We sympa
thise with the family that he has left behind him. We sym
pathise with his only son and with his distracted wife, and we
are called to mingle our griefs with theirs, and would be glad
der still if our sympathies could alleviate the terrible violence
of the blow that has fallen upon them. We think his death
unfortunate, and in some aspects it undoubtedly is so. The
old Greek would have said that he died a happy death, that he
died with his armor on his back, and that his armor sounded
as he fell. He died in the pursuit of his profession. He died

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 553

as the brother of Webster died, who fell his length before a
jury while arguing a cause.

" I say that I had not intended to speak a word on this occa
sion, and if, as I have already remarked, my silence might not
have been subject to misconstruction, I would have preferred to
have heard from others who knew him more intimately at the
bar — that arena to which he had for the last few years more
especially devoted himself. But I could not, when called upon
here, fail to say what I have said.

"The Hon. L. D. Campbell, being repeatedly called for,
finally arose and said :—

" "Were it not that I regard this as a most extraordinary
occasion indeed, I should not have attempted this morning to
leave the sick-room to which for some time past I have been
confined. And now that I am here, Mr. President, it seems
to me that silence 011 my part would more fitly express the
emotions of my heart. A few nights ago, or rather in the
morning, prostrated and suffering from sickness, I was aroused
by special messengers sent from Lebanon to announce to me that
Mr. Vallandigham had accidentally shot himself while engaged
in conducting the trial of McGehan. Prior to this my mind
had not infrequently been attracted to this case, because of the
peculiar circumstances surrounding it, and because the crime
with which McGehan was charged was perpetrated within a
few hundred feet of my residence. I could not realise .the truth
of the message for some time. Alas ! it was too true, and the
wound too fatal. Mr. President, I am neither physically nor
mentally in a condition to do this subject justice, or to do my
self justice. I did not know Mr. Vallandigham so well as
those who were his immediate neighbors, and yet I had oppor
tunities of measuring his intellectual strength on many occa
sions. It will be remembered by most of those by whom I
am surrounded now, that nearly twenty years ago he and I
were selected as representative men of two great political par
ties. I refer to the days when the old Democratic and the
Whig party were pitted against each other, and they were led
by giant intellects, such as Webster and Everett on one side,
and on the other by Buchanan, Cass, and Douglass.

"Mr. Vallandigham and I were chosen as champions to

554 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

meet before the people. Then for the first time I made his
acquaintance, and from the very hour that we began the dis
cussion of the 'political questions of those days, I formed a very
high opinion of his political strength. He was a man endowed
by the great God of 'nature with peculiar attributes. And his
natural abilities had been carefully cultivated until, even at
that early period of his life — twenty years ago — he was a
man of gigantic strength in public debate. It is true, I had
ten years more experience, for I \vas ten years his senior ; but
inexperienced as he was, I felt the power that he wielded be
fore the people. Never, from that time, have I failed to most
highly appreciate his abilities as a public man.

" One of his great traits of character was that of individu
ality. Most of us are deficient in that respect. We are all too
apt to lean upon others for assistance and support in the hour
of necessity. But Mr. Vallandigham threw himself back on
his own individual resources, and without regard to the char
acter of the opposition he had to encounter, relied upon him
self; and it was that great trait of his character, Mr. President,
his individuality, that consciousness of having himself the
strength and power to lead the people and carry them with
him, which, in my judgment, wras the secret of his success.

" It has well been said that we had reason to believe there
was a new field of usefulness open to him after a life of storm,
as it were. But he has gone, and I submit to the decree of
fate. ' After life's fitful fever he sleeps well/

" Mr. Campbell resumed his seat, overcome with emotion.

"There was a general desire to hear from Judge D. A. Haynes,
the late partner of Mr. Vallandigham, and he was several times
called for, but he desired in a trembling voice to be excused,
without assigning any reason.

" Mr. Geo. W. Houk, from the Committee on Resolutions,
presented his report, prefacing it as follows : —

"It is difficult, Mr. President, upon these frequently-re
curring occasions, in giving expression to our emotions, to depart
from the ordinary language of condolence or eulogy.

" But the death of Mr. Vallandigham, so tragic, so affect
ing, calling him at once from the very mid-day of an active,
vigorous, promising and ambitious life, to that other state of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 555

existence of which mankind can have no glimpse but by the
eye of faith, touches the profoundest depths of our nature, and
suggests the deepest reflections upon human life and destiny.

" We are forced to reflect upon the mysterious character of
that wonderful change which by a physical instrumentality, so
trifling in itself, has extinguished to the living world an as
semblage of faculties, personal, intellectual and moral, that
seemed organised to influence the destinies of a great people.

" That form so familiar to us, and but yesterday instinct with
vigorous life, is to-day • — dust. All his high hopes and aspi
rations, the cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces reared
by his ambition, are now but the stuff that dreams are made of
— ' his little life is rounded with a sleep/

" The memory of his manly presence, the recollection of his
courage, his eloquence, his integrity, his patriotism and many
virtues :

" It is in testimony to these your committee make tin's re
port :

" The Dayton Bar, deeply sympathising with the entire
people in the thrill of sorrow occasioned by the sudden and
tragic death of the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, and moreover
bound to him in the brotherhood of our professional relation,
as well as by the ties of social and friendly intercourse, de
sires to give expression to its profound grief by these proceed
ings.

"Resolved, That we bear willing and unanimous testimony to
the distinguished ability of our deceased brother as a lawyer,
his extensive and thorough acquirements as a scholar, his in
dustry as a student, his boldness as a statesman, and his courage
as a man. That these qualities, united with an unusual degree
of mental force and an invincible determination of character,
have given Mr. Vallandigham a national reputation, and
stamped him as one of the most remarkable men that have
appeared in the political history of the United States.

Resolved, That we wish especially upon this occasion to re
cord our appreciation of Mr. Yallandigham's uniform courtesy
and kindness in his professional relations, especially to the
younger members of the Bar ; his habits of close study, appli
cation, unremitting and enthusiastic devotion to his professional
engagements, which the sad occasion of his death has sanctified
as an example of precious value to the American Bar. Although

556 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

his career has been so unexpectedly terminated by an early death,
his life, comparatively brief, but brilliant, active and eventful
as it was, is replete with suggestions of value, not alone to the
young men of his profession, but to all who possess the honor
able ambition to bear a conspicuous part in professional or po
litical life.

"Resolved, That in this hour of double and crushing bereave
ment to a fond sister and devoted wife, called from the grave
of a revered and affectionate brother whose distinguished
talents shed lustre upon the American Bar, to attend the obse
quies of one still more dear to her as a husband, and whose
brilliant fame marked him at this time as the most conspicuous
figure in American politics, the Dayton Bar, acquainted with
the virtues and excellence of Mrs. Yallandigham's character,
tender to her and her son its heartfelt sympathies, and directs
that they may be furnished with a copy of these proceedings.

"Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the character of
our distinguished brother, and our grief at the deplorable oc
currence of his untimely death, the Dayton Bar, inviting such
of our brethren from abroad as shall be with us on this occasion,
do attend his funeral in a body, and that we will designate a
day hereafter when these proceedings shall, on motion, be
offered for record upon the minutes of our respective Courts.

" The following was offered by Hon. George W. Houk : —

"The Dayton Bar, being informed that the Hon. John
W. Garrett, President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
upon receiving information at Baltimore of the sudden and
lamentable bereavement of Mrs. Yallandigham and her con
sequent prostration and distress — she being then at Cumber
land, Md., attending the funeral of her deceased brother, the
Hon. John V. L. McMahon — promptly tendered the use of
his private coach, and made arrangements to have her thus
conveyed, with her intimate friends alone, from the city of
Cumberland to her home in Dayton, we hereby desire, for our
selves and on behalf of the family and friends of Mrs. Yallan
digham, to give public expression to our and their appreciation
of an act ofldndness and sympathy so delicate and considerate;
and we request a copy of this acknowledgment, signed by the
President and Secretary of this meeting, to be forwarded to
Mr. Garrett.

" The resolutions were unanimously adopted."

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 557

Similar meetings were held at Cincinnati, Lebanon, Hamil
ton, Newport, Ky., and other places.

At the meeting in Cincinnati the following remarks were
made by the Hon. Win. S. Groesbeck : —

"Mr. President: I did not come here with the expectation
or intention of talking. On occasions of afflictions such as this,
my inclination is to silence rather than to noise or display. But
I have come here to meet with the rest of you, and to unite in
an expression of sorrow over the great bereavement — family
bereavement, social bereavement, bereavement of the State, and,
in my judgment, bereavement of the nation — that has fallen
upon us. We have lost, unexpectedly, and in a most unsatis
factory manner, a distinguished and valuable citizen, one whom
I have known intimately for many years. We entered Congress
at the same term, and at its conclusion he remained, while I
returned home.

" I have met Mr. Vallandigham frequently in the past two
months, and have come pretty well to understand all his views
and plans. I do not propose to make party allusions here, for
this blow is felt by all; but I can say that all his plans, with
out exception, as even his opponents and critics must admit,
were those of a brave, honest, able and patriotic man. I know,
if his life so full of strength and vigor had been spared, he
would have demonstrated to the country the integrity of his
purpose and his love of his State and the nation.

" But I am not here to talk. I cannot do justice to our
friend. I am without preparation for such a work. It is my
pleasure, as it is the duty of all, in such an afflictive event as
this, to say that we heartily render to him the proper tribute for
all his virtues.

" I cannot say much more. I do not know what to say. I
knew his ambition to be useful ; to serve his country. He had
no mean ambition. He had great qualities and harbored no
thing mean. I know it. I know it as well as others, and
better than some.

" I can hardly be reconciled to this loss. It is to me inex
plicable, unsatisfactory. It has shocked his home city, this city,
the State and the nation. I am glad to see this unanimous
tribute to his known qualities. It never entered into my ima-

558 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

gination that Mr. Vallandigham was not thoroughly honest in
all that he did or said. Anything mean or dishonest he would
have thrown out of the window — he would harbor nothing of
the kind..

" Had it ever happened that an outside enemy — I will not
say nation — had ever touched the hem of our national garment
with evil intent, we would have seen a grand exhibition of his
patriotism. Brother fighting brother — Damon warring with
Pythias — was a different thing. But I stop. I lay this small
oblation upon the altar erected to his memory. He was all I
have said ; he was even more."

THE PRESS ON MR. VALLANDIGHAM'S DEATH.

[From the Boston Post.]

With eminent abilities, a rarely cultured mind, fluent im
agination, courageous, and aspiring to the highest distinction,
because conscious of his capacity if he attained them, the last
utterance almost of Vallandigham was for the glory and gran
deur of the Union.

[From the Chicago Tribune.']

The sudden and shocking death of Mr. Vallandigham has
produced an unusual sensation in all parts of the country.
Since the death of Douglass he has been more generally ac
knowledged and looked up to as the leader of the Democratic
party, than any other man

That he was opposed originally to the acts of secession,
there can be no doubt ; and the man's honesty was never shown
more clearly than in the fact that, though intensely opposed to
the war, he felt bound, upon principle, to vote all the men and
money demanded by the Government to prosecute the war, so
long as it was sustained by the people.

Mr. Vallandigham was no demagogue. He did not sail
with the wind. When he considered he was right, no power
could move him ; and neither the rage of opposition nor the
appeals of friends could cause him to abandon his position.
He was a man of ability far above the general average, and
greatly in advance of any man now prominent in the Demo-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 559

cratic party. He was one of the best public speakers in the
country, and it cannot be doubted that if he had lived in a
different time, he would have attained high official position.
In private life, and in all his relations with his fellow-men,
Mr. Vallandigham was a gentleman — cultivated, kind, warm
hearted, and generous. His death leaves a very large gap in
the party to which he belonged.

[From the Cincinnati Volksblatt.]

A. stormy and eventful life has suddenly been cut short.
With unexpected quickness, and without the faintest premoni
tion, the inexorable fates have snapped asunder the thread of
life of a man in his most vigorous manhood and in the midst
of a most hopeful career. As a meteor shoots through the sky
and vanishes, as a mighty tree, seized by a roaring whirlwind,
is uprooted and sinks to the earth with a crash, so rapidly and
so mightily did C. L. Yallancligham sink into the cold arms
of death.

Judge of Mr. Vallandigham's political past as you will
... no dark stain cleaves to his private character or his social
position. Even his bitterest enemies could not help recognis
ing his strict honesty, incorruptible integrity, and his open and
straightforward disposition ; while his moral courage, his emin
ent mental qualities, his burning eloquence, and his courteous
and polished demeanor, placed him in the foremost rank of the
great men of the present day.

[From the Cincinnati Volksfreund.}

Vallandigham, in character as well as talents, stood far
above the ordinary level of latter-day politicians. He possessed
what most would-be statesmen, who employ the arts of pliancy
and oiliness, want, viz : an indomitable courage, and manly
pride enough not to disavow himself at any price in any con
dition of life. He possessed magnanimity enough to admit
errors, and to endeavor to correct them ; but whenever he felt
he was right, he would not yield an inch, even to the strongest
antagonist. It is the cowards that cherish rancor, but the
courageous forgive and forget, as Vallandigham has shown by
his conciliatory course.

560 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

[From the 1ST Y. Sun.]

The voice of religion teaches that no man dies too soon or
too late ; but much as we believe this, the demise of Clement
L. Vallandigham is none the less sudden, and to his friends
most painful. His friends were many, even among his life
long political opponents; his enemies were few, even in his
own party. A conspicuous figure ever since his first appear
ance upon the stage of political aifairs, he was never so con
spicuous as at the moment of his death, nor ever before had
such power of being useful to his country.

Next, he was a man of courage, never hesitating to utter
his opinions or shrinking from their defence. This noble
quality was impressively exhibited in the last great act of his
life, when he came forward to direct the Democracy in the
new departure, unsaying his own old ideas, and advocating a
policy he had before resisted.

He had an intense, ardent temperament ; and his intellect,
not so original or so massive, or in itself so powerful, as that
of some others, was yet capable of most efficient work under
the prompting of his vigorous, sleepless nature. He was gen
erous, unpretending, kindly, true to his friends ; and those who
knew him were apt to like him. It was his ambition to be
come a Senator of the United States, and that desire is now
over with him forever. But his mind will continue on tacit
our politics long after his grave is closed ; and if the Democracy
continue, as they doubtless will, to follow the path into which
he has led them, they will owe what success they may gain
first of all to the foresight, the wisdom, and the firmness of
Vallandigham.

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer, June 18.]

It was with emotions of unutterable sorrow that we chronicled
yesterday the fatal accident to the Hon. C. L. Yallandigham,
at Lebanon, Ohio. So sudden and overwhelming was it that
we yet can hardly realise its truth. But yesterday, in the
pride of vigorous health and the prime of manhood, a fine
specimen of the physical as well as the intellectual man, with
every appearance about him of longevity, he has fallen, and a
melancholy tragedy has closed a character and a career that
will never be forgotten in this country. Since the death of

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 561

President Lincoln, in 1865, no demise of any individual has
created so great and universal a sorrow. The deceased was so
extraordinary a man, and had had such a stormy political life,
that his death at any time would have been a marked event ;
but occurring under the circumstances it did, it has invested it
with the deepest historical interest and sad pathos. He may
well be called a martyr to his profession. His zeal and enthu
siasm for his client, who was being tried for his life, has cost
him his own. No lawyer has ever erected a more splendid
monument to the devotion and fidelity which should charac
terise the relations of counsel than he has by this sad catas
trophe. No sentinel perishing at his post, no physician falling a
victim to his efforts to save his patients, ever died in a more
heroic and v/orthy manner. The bar of Ohio, of which he
was a distinguished ornament, owe it to the profession to take a
fitting and proper notice of this dreadful tragedy. Since all
that is mortal of Mr. Vallandigham has gone, since party
feelings of resentment and personal jealousies can have no
further cause for action, we may contemplate him more impar
tially and judge of those great abilities which made him famous
among men.

Whatever may be said of Mr. Vallandigham, who had his
faults, none ever doubted his great brain-power — his superb
intellectual attainments. In this he used no economy. Once
enlisted in a cause, he devoted himself entirely to its accom
plishment with remarkable enthusiasm. Had he not been en
dowed by nature with more than is usually accorded to men,
his drafts upon his mental treasury would have seriously im
paired its integrity.

The man was conscious of his own rectitude, and very many
parallels may be found where unpopularity, as in his case,
was the result of an unappreciating public, for he could not be
called a popular man in the sense that public men are now
viewed. The elements of his intellectual power were these:
He had an iron will and an unconquerable resolution. He
had an energy that never slacked, and always challenged ad
miration. His industry was untiring and most indomitable.
He had patience and perseverance, and perfect self-control.
Originally receiving a good education, it had been assiduously
improved by study and reflection. He had one of the best and
most finely selected libraries in the State of Ohio, and of its

36

562 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

treasures his wonderful memory had made him master. We
have seldom met a man who had read history so attentively
and thoroughly, and whose recollection of it could be so im
plicitly trusted. His mind was logical in its composition, and
his perceptions of a point were always clear. There was a
vigorous and forcible masculinity about his intellect that struck
every one who was brought in contact with him. He had the
ability to unite the qualifications of the lawyer with the states
man and with the popular orator, and he excelled, like S. S.
Prentiss, of Mississippi, in all of them. He had fine imagina
tive powers, and his speeches are thickly strewn with rhetorical
beauties that are never found in the efforts of the mere political
man.

Ferociously assailed and denounced as no other man of
his day and generation had been, there are few men who will
not, when they look at the matter dispassionately, fail to give
him credit for honesty and sincerity. He espoused during the
war the weak side. He combatted popular passion and pre
judice, and risked his life, his property and character in behalf
of what he considered right. Had he been a venal and corrupt
or an unprincipled man, he would have gone with the current,
and obtained political honor and distinction instead of obloquy
and reproach. It is to be regretted that more of our political
men have not, as he had,* the heroism to maintain an honest
opinion, even at the expense of their popularity.

Socially he had great and commanding traits. There was
a magnetism about him that drew toward him the good- will and
affection of hosts of friends. No man in the State, even when
he was generally under the ban of public opinion, had a greater
number of personal adherents who would have stood by him
under any and all circumstances.

In the course of his active and varied career it was often
the fortune of the writer of this article to differ with him, and
sometimes warmly and vehemently, upon party and individual
policy. But we never failed to recognise the many splendid
qualities that he possessed ; and in the most trying season of
his life, when he was brought to this city by General Burnside's
order, in 1863, and the question was whether death or im
prisonment should be his lot, we are proud to know that he re
cognised in a warm manner our humble efforts in his behalf.
It is now to us a great satisfaction that just before the late State

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 563

Convention we saw him at Columbus and had a most cordial
and friendly interview with him, and there finally disposed of
any alienation or misunderstanding, if upon either side it had
previously existed.

Little did we think as we bade him adieu that we were
never to see him again in this world, that our eyes should
never have another glance at his manly form. In one respect
he was fortunate. Recent events and the modifying hand of
time have soothed and obliterated much of the animosity which
existed against him, and there is a kinder disposition to do
justice than ever before, and he will be followed to his grave by
the regrets of those who were lately his antagonists.

To the Democratic party of Ohio, to whom he had given
a quarter of a century of vigorous and distinguished service,
his loss is almost irreparable, especially now when we are in
a campaign the issues of which he had so strongly marked put
and traced, and which he was expected to uphold and defend
with his usual ability. We feel assured that those who were
the most opposed to the 'new departure' will deeply lament
this untoward accident, and that their hearts will well out in
sympathy with the sad fate of our distinguished leader. A
thousand indescribable recollections of the past will rise in the
hearts of his Democratic party friends who have stood by him
through good and evil report, and melancholy will be the con
victions that no longer shall they listen to his clarion voice nor
hear his bugle-blast of defiance to the enemy. From the river
to the lakes, and from Pennsylvania to Indiana, there will be
an outburst of grief from thousands of stout hearts, which
during the excited and heated contests of the last few years had
been drawn toward him by the strong tie of mutual feeling,
and by their admiration of his talents and heroic bravery.

Mr. Yallandigham was an ambitious man, but his ambition
was of an elevated and noble kind. The stroke of fate has
fallen upon him when apparently the sunlight of prosperity
was about to descend upon his head, and when his chances were
fair of gaining a life-long coveted distinction.

During the late canvass in Ohio the following eulogy was
pronounced by the Hon. George H. Pendleton : —

"Who can commence the discussion of political questions

564 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

without being carried involuntarily to that scene of anguish
and death which so lately clothed our party, our State, and our
country in mourning?

1 The silver cord is loosened ; the golden bowl broken.'

The voice that spoke so eloquently and so well is stilled.
The intellect which thought so truly exerts its powers on other
subjects, in other spheres. The strong, brave heart beats not
to the conflicts of time. When I think of this I feel that we
might imitate the captives of Judea, who by the waters of
Babylon hung their harps on the willows, and sat down and
wept when they remembered Zion. I did not know Mr. Val-
landigham so long perhaps as many of you, but I knew him
very well. During his whole service in Congress I was his
colleague. During the eventful sessions of 1861—62—63 I was
his daily associate and intimate friend. During the day of his
arrest, and trial and imprisonment, I saw him at every hour
that it was possible, and did what I could to mitigate the pain
which an infamous tyranny inflicted. In all those times of
anxiety and care and suffering I never heard from his lips one
word inconsistent with the loftiest patriotism, the most unfalter
ing hope, and the most unblenching courage. You know he
was able, and eloquent, and self-reliant, and studious ; that he
had great strength of will and force of character, and that
magnetism which attracted and attached men closely to him.
Pie was also cool and deliberate and patient. Beyond most
men whom I have known he was sensitive to attacks upon the
purity of his motives and character. I have seen him wounded
to the quick — his heart lacerated until it seemed too sore to
touch, and bleeding his life away — by the vindictive, savage
abuse so unsparingly heaped upon him during the war. Never
were attacks more unjust and infamous. No man loved his
country more intensely, and sought for the wisest policy more
conscientiously, or would have sacrificed more readily or more
abundantly health and strength and fortune, and even preju
dices and preconceived opinions, to secure its welfare. He
would have been a war man if he could have believed that
war would restore the Union. He would have been a devoted
supporter of the Republican party if he could have believed
its policy would have maintained the guarantees of liberty

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 565

afforded by our Constitution. As he could not believe this,
he would not swerve from the conviction of the ( faith that was
in him/ even though his heart should bleed and break at the
blind misconstruction of his character and the wilful perver
sion of his words and aspersion of his motives. I thank God
he has lived long enough to see that Time, the avenger in
whom he had such unwavering faith, has commenced his work,
and that many who had maligned him most were beginning to
see their error and to do him justice. I thank God that at
the last the sun penetrated the! darkness of the night, and that
his eye saw, even though only for a moment, the mist of the
morning dissolving before its radiant beams. And if it be
given to men who have gone hence to care for or to know the
estimation in which they are held on earth, I know his spirit
will be gladdened by the fact that all his countrymen, without
dissent, will believe that he was as pure as he was able, as
honest as he was brave, and as faithful as he was persecuted."

The following recollections of Mr. Vallandigham are from
the pen of S. W. Gilson, Esq., of Canfield, Ohio. Mr. Gilson
was at college with Mr. Vallandigham, afterwards studied law
in his office, and during his life was a warm political and per
sonal friend. After speaking of Mr. Vallandigham's course
at college, and giving substantially the same account as has
already been given by Dr. F. T. Brown and the Hon. S.
Clemens, Mr. Gilson says : —

" After he left college I knew nothing more of him for
some years until after I graduated. Then I came to Ohio, to
Columbiana County, and commenced teaching a select clas
sical school, and at the same time I commenced the study
of law with Mr. Vallandigham, then in practice in New
Lisbon, Ohio, and in his office I prosecuted my study until
I was admitted in the spring of 1846. During the time I read
with him, whilst he gave proper attention to his practice and
the law connected with his cases, and prosecuted his profession
with all the ardor which constituted the soul of his being, still
he seemed inclined to study politics with full as much zeal

566 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

and so continued until within three or four years of the un
fortunate termination of his brief but imperishable career, when
he devoted his whole energy to his profession and practice, and
had become one of the first lawyers of Ohio, always preserving
his integrity and high character as a membe^ of the bar. and
commanding the respect of all.

" Soon after I commenced study with him he was "elected
to the Legislature of Ohio, and although young, whilst in that
body he occupied a standing and position amongst the first
members therein — always in his place, giving constant atten
tion to the progress of legislation, and commanding the respect
of his fellow-members, irrespective of party, by his well-
expressed and consistent views of all the subjects of discussion
and legislation.

"As a statesman he was well entitled to be ranked amongst
the first in our nation. Learned as he was in all the history
of the past; familiar with the rise, progress, decline, and down
fall of the nations that had passed away in the world's his
tory, tracing with care, as he did, through the pages of history
the causes that contributed to their greatness, grandeur, and
glory, and the elements which in revolving years wrought their
ruin : he could well declare the principles essential to the per
petuity of our free institutions. When a member of Congress,
he well sustained himself as a debater and parliamentarian,
and the speeches by him delivered during that time compare
well with those of the best statesmen of England or America,
and will live with those of Pitt and Burke and Fox of the old
world, and "Webster, Clay, and Calhoun of the new.

" Lastly, as a popular speaker in campaigns he had no su
perior in Ohio. I was with him much through the south and
west of Ohio during the campaign when Thurman was a can
didate for Governor, and I have never seen any speaker who
could so long and so well hold an audience through an address.
His manner of speaking on the ' stump ' as well as elsewhere,
Wis precise, calm, and dignified, speaking for hours without
making a blunder, without violating a rule in grammar or
rhetoric or logic. At times his address was characterised with
extreme severity, but always chaste, classical, and dignified.
Had he lived in this campaign, he would surely have been the
most important character therein, and would have contributed
much by hi-s efforts to, have enabled the Democracy to carry

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 567

Ohio for constitutional liberty, law, and order, and against
Radicalism, fraud, and corruption. But he is gone, just when
his work seemed to be half done. Would that he had lived
for another score of years ; for surely I would have seen him
in that time occupy the highest position in the gift of the
American people. Bravely had he fought through long years
and against organised opposition; and though the dark night
of the war had been long and the storms has been strong, yet
he had never furled the rainbow flag of Democratic principles,
of constitutional liberty. And surely he who had 'launched
his barque for the skies ' would never have become the ' drift
wood of the world/ but would have advanced from one degree
of honor to another, until at last he would have stood on the
mountain height where ' Fame's proud temple shines afar.'
Proud, because his nation was great and glorious : ' but now,
alas ! of all things the reverse : earth has become his winding-
sheet, and darkness palls the hearse.'

We close with the following tribute from the pen of the

** %

Hon. James W. Wall, formerly United States Senator ". from

the State of New Jersey, and a warm political and personal
friend : —

" CLEMENT L. YALLANDIGHAM.

"The announcement of the sudden death of this distin
guished citizen of Ohio fell on Saturday upon startled commu
nities everywhere within reach of telegraphic communication,
as if they had heard a loud thunder-peal in a cloudless sky.
In New York, as the bulletins announced ' Vallandigham
Dead/ crowds gathered about them, and the words of deep
sorrow that could be heard on all sides, testified that a great
and good man had passed away from earth.

" Never did the force of the text, ' What is your life : it is
even a vapor that appeareth for a little and then vanisheth
away/ strike us more solemnly than when we read the an
nouncement of our friend's sudden death. It was only a few
weeks ago that we were with him in New York, discussing to
gether the points of the platform which has since caused so
much excitement under the misnomer of ' The New Departure/
He was in full robust strength, his eyes flashing with intellec-

568 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

tual fire, and his cheek glowed with the ruddiest hues of health.
As we parted from him we said : ' Be careful you do not fail,
for failure now would be fatal ; ' and the answer came back in
those full and old familiar tones : ' I know no such word as
fail, for it finds no place in my dictionary. I shall fight the
coming contest in Ohio with an earnestness and determination
such as I have never exhibited before, and I rely upon your
promise " to come over and help us." ' But, alas for the vanity
of all human expectations and human projects! — the strong
man, with twenty-five years of vigorous life in him, whose con
stitution never had been impaired by the excesses that overthrow
so many, and who uttered these brave words, to-day lies clothed
in the garments of the tomb, a shrouded corpse in the midst
of that once happy home in Dayton where he was so long the
light and glory.

" In the intercourse of life we sometimes, though rarely,
find men admirable for their social qualities, for a clear and
vigorous intellect, and for rare integrity and moral worth com
bined. "Very pleasant is ' the friendship and society of such
men, and their loss by death is a sad calamity. They are be
loved, respected, admired, and illustrious, and never in vain
do they live, or fail when dead to leave behind them an in
fluence for good. Some men have great influence, and are
superior because they have the natural endowments of a strong
will and weighty force of character. Some are admired for
their splendid genius, intellect, and high culture; some for
social and others for moral gifts and graces. But the best con
ceivable type of character will combine the strength of a power-
fill understanding and a firm, reliant will, with the beauty of
a true and loving nature, carrying with it, as such nature al
ways does, kindness, benevolence, sympathy, and warm affec
tions. All these met and were harmoniously blended in the
character of Mr. Yallandigham. In all his life-work, never
did human being more thoroughly carry out the counsel of
David to Solomon : ' Show thyself a man/ It was illustrated
in both his private and his public walk. Conscious ever of
the rectitude of his intentions, he possessed all the courage that
generally accompanies the sense of right, and nothing ever
deterred him from the public expression of his honest opinions,
leaving the consequences to The Great Disposer of events. . . .

" Mr. Yallandigham was early called into public life, and

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 569

he at once took high rank in the Legislature of his native
State as a vigorous and polished debater. Upon entering the
halls of Congress he leaped at one bound to the position of a
leader. His first speech was listened to with rapt attention
and undisguised admiration. During its delivery the House
was hushed to an unwonted stillness, and the whisper went
round the halls and galleries, 'Who is that graceful and
earnest speaker ? ' After that memorable day the announce
ment anywhere in the Capitol, ' Vallandigham has the floor/
was sure to empty the Senate chamber, the Supreme Court,
and all the hiding-places and recesses of the building. During
the war, side by side with Cox, Voorhees, Pendleton, and May,
he vainly attempted to protect the constitutional outposts from
being driven in, and save the country from drifting into those
swelling and treacherous rapids that are ever hurrying on to
the great maelstrom of centralisation.

" Throughout the whole of that fierce struggle he never
uttered a word or evolved a proposition that did not spring
from a spirit of the most self-sacrificing devoted patriotism.
We challenge a denial of this assertion, and dare any wretched
libeller'of the dead statesman to put his finger upon a single
sentiment of his that Washington, Madison, and Jay might not
have uttered. With a thorough knowledge of the Constitution,
and a soul devoted to its preservation, he sacrificed all hopes
of political advancement because he would not and could not
sanction doctrines that have since been stamped as infamous
by the supreme tribunal of the nation. He had an undying
attachment to the Union of these States as equal and indepen
dent sovereignties, was strong in that patriotism which made
him love his country even before himself, and well might have
exclaimed with the greatest and purest of the Romans : —

1 1 am the son. of Marcus Cato,
A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend.'

" His loss to-day to the country is immense, for it has torn
from her, while in the full maturity and strength of his great
powers, another of that little band of unselfish, unsullied hearts
that worshipped her for herself alone, and not for the honors
or emoluments she had to bestow. His loss to Ohio and the
Democracy of that gallant State is irreparable. There is no one

570 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

left that can fill the place made void by his lamented and aw
fully sudden death. As the present Governor said to a friend
of the writer of this, ' Vallandigham was a most powerful man
to contend against in a popular canvass. His resources are
immense and varied, while he exercises a most magnetic in
fluence over the crowds that flock to hear him, and who are
carried away by his eloquence. In invective and withering
sarcasm he has not his superior in the State, and I doubt very
much whether he has out of it/ This is a tribute from a gen
erous political foe, and from one who found in him ' a foeman
worthy of his steel/

" We have seen him at large political gatherings, when by
the magic of his potent eloquence he made ' men to be of one
mind/ and swayed them as if they were influenced by one
supreme will. He was always a man of such dignity and pro
priety of manners before an audience as to at once impress it
with the importance of his subject and the occasion. He never
told stories for the purpose of causing laughter — he was too
full of mental resources for that. He might illustrate a point
of his speech by an occasional anecdote, but this was very rare ;
and he ever adhered strictly to the truth when dealing with the
record and doctrines of the opposite party. As he always said,
' It is grossly insulting to an audience to lie to them about even
their enemies. Truth always is the measure of wrath that
should be dealt out to the opposition.7 He ever entrenched
himself behind truth, and from that battery shot forth the
mighty missiles of his brain. The tones of his musical voice
were full, round and distinct ; and large as was the crowd, his
every word could be heard with facility at its outermost verge.
His eye was expressive and most penetrating in its power when
under excitement ; and his c glance was stern and high ' when
he was depicting in his own graphic way the wrongs and out
rages committed by the infamous Lincoln administration upon
the freedom of the citizen and the rights of free speech and a
free press. The minions of arbitrary power quailed before the
lightning of his glance, as well they might. They could not
stand up before the potency of his rebuke ; and as all tyrants
and their minions have done in every age, they tried to break
his spirit by imprisonment and banishment, but in vain.

"... With all the wrong and outrage inflicted upon the
subject of our sketch, thank God he lived long enough to find

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 571

that time had brought along some of its revenges ; he lived
long enough to hear the loftiest judges of the land, those ap
pointed by Lincoln himself, by a solemn decision pronounce his
persecutors 'usurpers of power and invaders of the public
liberty.' There never lived since the days of Sydney a more
earnest, eloquent and devoted champion of civil liberty, and
at the same time a more humble and obedient servant to the
law, when constitutionally administered, than Clement L. Val-
landigham.

" The crowd of citizens of all parties who gathered in Dayton
to pay the last sad tribute of respect to the memory of Ohio's
great statesman, was a most eloquent commentary upon the
madness and injustice which made life's experience so bitter
to the living patriot. The stern hand of death appears to have
torn asunder the veil which so long concealed the grand pro
portions of the man from so many eyes ; and he now stands re
vealed, and will go down to posterity, as the pure, unselfish and
incorruptible patriot that he really was.

" His life-work is done, and these earthly acclamations and
tributes cannot reach him on that far-off shore whither he has
gone. Amid the blessed realities of eternity he cares not for
them ; but to us who remain, who loved him living and mourn
him dead, these tributes are exceedingly precious. They are
precious as the costly myrrh and spikenard that were cast into
the Roman funeral-pyre. They reveal to us how unjust were
the passions and prejudices of the hour when he was hounded
almost to his death, and bear most eloquent witness to the great
and intrinsic worth of the man thus cruelly persecuted. Death
was the 'Ithuriel spear' that touched him and revealed him to
the world in his true character as a man and a patriot. It was
not, it is true, the reward looked for, and that was to compen
sate

* The patient search and vigil long
Of him who treasures up a wrong,'

to use the words he was so fond of quoting from his favorite
Mazeppa ; but it was something infinitely purer and holier :
the tribute, not wrung from the result of earthly passion and
the fruition of revenge, but the result of the illumination of
the God-like truth that filled the breasts of that mourning
multitude — suddenly and potent, and we speak it with all re-

572 LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

verence, as that ' light like unto noon-day \ which flashed around
the stricken Saul as he fell prostrate, conscious of all the wrongs
and outrages he had been guilty of as a persecutor of the saints.

" His friend Groesbeck struck the key-note of Yallandig-
ham's patriotism when he said at the bar meeting :

" i I dare not think of this man as anything but patriotic.
No man could have questioned his patriotism, his love for the
whole country. Had a foreign foe dared to 'touch merely the
outside hem of the garment of the country, you would have
had from him such an exhibition of patriotism as would have
kindled you with new fire. But this war of States, this Damon
and Pythias quarrel, he deprecated and could not understand,
for he loved both North and South alike with his whole heart.7

" Oh, how true all this is ! His patriotism had no sec
tionalism about it. It was not hemmed in by State lines, but
beat responsive to a universal love. He strongly felt as
regards both North and South, 'We all are brethren.7 His
deep historic research, more marked in him than in any other
man we ever knew, had revealed to him the accumulated and
accursed horrors of civil strife. How often have we conversed
with him over those passages of Lucaii in his Pharsalia bearing
upon the fiercest civil struggle of ancient Rome. In that poem
the atrocities of the Marian civil war are brought prominently
forward in the narrative. The beautiful, cold, classic mytho
logy has there no place. The supreme powers that hover over
the scene of slaughter are the local deified men and heroes, and
the evil spirits of the country. The ghost of Sylla rises in the
field of Mars, and the dead Marius is seen to break open his
sepulchre on the banks of the Arno. A corpse is taken from
the field of death, the spirit forced to re-enter it and tell what
it has seen. The tortured ghost beholds Cincinnatus, the
Decii and the Curii patriots of Rome weeping and wailing,
while Marius and Cataline are seen bursting their chains and
shouting applause. He often commented on this vision of the
poet, and declared that it rose before him in all its ghastly
horror every time he read an account of the meeting of North
and South on bloody battle-fields. He struggled with all the
ardor and energy of his nature to ward off the fearful collision;
and when it came, he was continually for extending the olive-
branch whenever an opportunity offered. Let no wretched
speculator who was turning the blood and bones of his slaugh-

LIFE OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. . 573

tered countrymen to profit, dare to question the sincerity of
his motives.

" The blessings and the inheritance promised to the peace
makers in Holy Writ are his to-day, and he can gaze with
serene pity from the blessed abodes where he rests, upon the
pharisaical and narrow souls of such malignants. When he
felt that the hem of his country's garment had been trodden
upon by a foreign foe, as in the Trent affair, he was the first
to resent it; but the cowardly souls of those who were coining
fortunes out of their country's woes, shrank back affrighted from
the proposition, preferring to humiliate themselves and country
before a foreign foe sooner than hazard the close of a civil
strife where that country's loss was their gain. Death at last
canonised the man. He fell with his harness on, and as General
McCook remarked, ' it clanged when he fell/ He is now far
beyond the reach of the praise of his friends or the censure
of his foes; but as years roll on, his public fame shall brighten
more and more, while the memory of his vile detractors and
persecutors will have perished from the earth.

"Thus much and more we could have written of the public
man. When as a friend we come to speak of his heart, we
falter and break down. We cannot praise him without tears.
His friendship was not lightly given, but when once given it
could not be too dearly prized. A brave heart is always kind.1
When he had quietly and carefully tried any one, studied his
character and found him not wanting, but steadfast and true,
he never wavered in his friendship. A perfect gentleman in
the instinctive caution about interfering in anything whatever
that did not concern him ; yet on all suitable occasions, especi
ally in the hour of trial, he showed a steadiness of friendship
and a firmness of confidence that shone over the darkness and
storms of life like the rays of the beacon to the worn-out
mariner. For ourselves, as we remember the pleasant hours
of the past, we can only close in those sweetly touching lines
of Tennyson : —

'•We weop a loss forever new,

A void where heart on heart reposed ;
And where warm hands have pressed and closed-
Silence till ice be silent too.

1 We weep the comrade of our choice,
An awful thought, a life removed,
The human-hearted man we loved,
A spirit, not a breathing voice."'

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Vallandigham, J.L.

A life of Clement
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