Clement Vallandigham
Encyclopedia
Clement Laird Vallandigham (July 29, 1820 – June 17, 1871) was an Ohio
resident of the Copperhead
faction of anti-war Democrat
s during the American Civil War
. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives
.
(now Lisbon, Ohio), to Clement Vallandigham and his wife Rebecca Laird. He graduated from Jefferson College
in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
. Shortly after moving to Tibet, Ohio, to practice law, Vallandigham entered politics. He was elected as a Democrat to the Ohio legislature in 1845 and 1846, and also served as editor of a weekly newspaper, the Dayton Empire, from 1847 until 1849. He ran for Congress in 1856, and was narrowly defeated. He appealed to the House of Representatives
, which seated him, by a party vote, on the next to last day of the term. He was elected by a small margin in 1858 and again in 1860, when he reluctantly supported Stephen A. Douglas
. Once the Civil War began, however, the majority anti-secession population of the Dayton area turned him out, and Vallandigham lost his bid for a third term in 1862 by a relatively large vote. However, this result may not be strictly comparable, owing to redistricting
.
Vallandigham was a vigorous supporter of constitutional states' rights
. He believed the federal government had no power to regulate a legal institution, which slavery then was. He also believed the states had a right to secede and that the Confederacy
could not constitutionally be conquered militarily. Vallandigham supported the Crittenden Compromise
and proposed on February 20, 1861 that the Senate and the electoral college
be divided into four sections, each with a veto. He strongly opposed every military bill, leading his opponents to charge that he wanted the Confederacy to win the war. Vallandigham was the acknowledged leader of the Copperheads
, and in May 1862 he coined their slogan, "To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was."
After General Ambrose E. Burnside issued General Order Number 38
, warning that the "habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy" would not be tolerated in the Military District of Ohio, Vallandigham gave a major speech on May 1, 1863, charging that the war was being fought not to save the Union but to free the slaves by sacrificing the liberty of all Americans to "King Lincoln." To those who supported the war he declared, "Defeat, debt, taxation [and] sepulchres - these are your trophies."
Vallandingham "publicly denounced the ‘wicked and cruel' war by which ‘King Lincoln
' was ‘crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism,'" and called for Lincoln's removal from the presidency. On May 5, Vallandigham was arrested as a violator of General Order No. 38. His enraged supporters burned the offices of the Dayton Journal, the Republican
rival to the Empire. Vallandigham was tried by a military court on May 6 and 7. He was denied a writ of habeas corpus
and was convicted by the military tribunal
of "uttering disloyal sentiments" and attempting to hinder the prosecution of the war. He was sentenced to two years' confinement in a military prison. A Federal circuit judge upheld Vallandigham's arrest and military trial as a valid exercise of the President's war powers. President Lincoln wrote the "Birchard Letter
" to several Ohio congressmen, offering to release Vallandigham if they would agree to support certain policies of the Administration. Lincoln, who considered Vallandigham a "wily agitator", was wary of making him a martyr to the Copperhead cause and thus ordered him sent through the enemy lines to the Confederacy. He was taken under military guard to Tennessee. Although he altered Vallandigham's sentence, Lincoln did not repudiate Burnside's military actions against a civilian. In response to a public letter issued at a meeting of angry Democrats in Albany, Lincoln's "Letter to Erastus Corning et al." explains his justification for supporting the court-martial's conviction.
In February 1864, the Supreme Court ruled that it had no power to issue a writ of habeas corpus to a military commission (Ex parte Vallandigham
, 1 Wallace, 243).
After being sent to the Confederacy, Vallandigham travelled by blockade runner to Bermuda
and then to Canada
, where he declared himself a candidate for Governor of Ohio, subsequently winning the Democratic nomination in absentia. (Outraged at his treatment by Lincoln, Ohio Democrats by a vote of 411 -11 nominated Vallandigham for governor http://www.civilwarhome.com/vallandighambio.htm at their June 11 convention.) He managed his campaign from a hotel in Windsor, Ontario
, where he received a steady stream of visitors and supporters. He asked in one speech, "Shall there be free speech, a free press, peaceable assemblages of the people, and a free ballot any longer in Ohio?" His platform included withdrawing Ohio (and any other Northern state that would agree) from the Union if Lincoln refused to reconcile with the Confederacy. Vallandigham lost the 1863 Ohio gubernatorial election in a landslide to pro-Union War Democrat John Brough
, but his activism had left people of Dayton divided between pro- and anti-slavery factions. He appeared publicly in Ohio and openly attended the 1864 Democratic National Convention
in Chicago. He wrote the "peace plank" of the platform, declaring the war a failure and demanding an immediate end of hostilities. However, he was unable to block his party's nomination of pro-war General George B. McClellan
for the presidency. Although Vallandigham was included on the Democratic ticket as Secretary of War, the contradiction between his and McClellan's views weakened Democratic efforts to win voters over.
After the war, Vallandigham returned to Ohio, lost his campaigns for Senate and the House of Representatives on an anti-Reconstruction platform, and then resumed his law practice. By 1871 he won the Ohio Democrats over to a "new departure
" policy that would essentially neglect to mention the Civil War.
Vallandigham's assertion that "he did not want to belong to the United States" prompted Edward Everett Hale
to write The Man Without a Country
. This short story, which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly
in December 1863, was widely republished.
, at the age of 50, after accidentally shooting himself with a pistol. He was representing a defendant in a murder case for killing a man in a bar room brawl. Vallandigham attempted to prove the victim had in fact killed himself while trying to draw his pistol from a pocket when rising from a kneeling position. As Vallandigham conferred with fellow defense attorneys in his hotel room, he showed them how he would demonstrate this to the jury. Grabbing a pistol he believed to be unloaded, he put it in his pocket and enacted the events as they might have happened, shooting himself in the process. Vallandigham proved his point, and the defendant, Thomas McGehan, was acquitted and released from custody. Clement Vallandigham, however, died of his wound. His last words expressed his faith in "that good old Presbyterian
doctrine of predestination
." Survived by his wife, Louisa Anna (McMahon) Vallandingham, and his son Charles Vallandigham, he was buried in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio
.
John A. McMahon
, Vallandigham's nephew, was also a U.S. Representative from Ohio.
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
resident of the Copperhead
Copperheads (politics)
The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
faction of anti-war Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
s during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
.
Biography
He was born in New Lisbon, OhioLisbon, Ohio
Lisbon is a village in Center Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,788 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Columbiana County.-History:...
(now Lisbon, Ohio), to Clement Vallandigham and his wife Rebecca Laird. He graduated from Jefferson College
Washington & Jefferson College
Washington & Jefferson College, also known as W & J College or W&J, is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States, which is south of Pittsburgh...
in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
Canonsburg is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, southwest of Pittsburgh. Canonsburg was laid out by Colonel John Canon in 1789 and incorporated in 1802....
. Shortly after moving to Tibet, Ohio, to practice law, Vallandigham entered politics. He was elected as a Democrat to the Ohio legislature in 1845 and 1846, and also served as editor of a weekly newspaper, the Dayton Empire, from 1847 until 1849. He ran for Congress in 1856, and was narrowly defeated. He appealed to the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, which seated him, by a party vote, on the next to last day of the term. He was elected by a small margin in 1858 and again in 1860, when he reluctantly supported Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
. Once the Civil War began, however, the majority anti-secession population of the Dayton area turned him out, and Vallandigham lost his bid for a third term in 1862 by a relatively large vote. However, this result may not be strictly comparable, owing to redistricting
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...
.
Vallandigham was a vigorous supporter of constitutional states' rights
States' rights
States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government. It is often considered a loaded term because of its use in opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation...
. He believed the federal government had no power to regulate a legal institution, which slavery then was. He also believed the states had a right to secede and that the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
could not constitutionally be conquered militarily. Vallandigham supported the Crittenden Compromise
Crittenden Compromise
The Crittenden Compromise was an unsuccessful proposal introduced by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden on December 18, 1860. It aimed to resolve the U.S...
and proposed on February 20, 1861 that the Senate and the electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
be divided into four sections, each with a veto. He strongly opposed every military bill, leading his opponents to charge that he wanted the Confederacy to win the war. Vallandigham was the acknowledged leader of the Copperheads
Copperheads (politics)
The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
, and in May 1862 he coined their slogan, "To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was."
After General Ambrose E. Burnside issued General Order Number 38
General Order Number 38
General Order Number 38 was issued by American Union general Ambrose Burnside on April 13, 1863, during the American Civil War, while Burnside commanded the Department of the Ohio...
, warning that the "habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy" would not be tolerated in the Military District of Ohio, Vallandigham gave a major speech on May 1, 1863, charging that the war was being fought not to save the Union but to free the slaves by sacrificing the liberty of all Americans to "King Lincoln." To those who supported the war he declared, "Defeat, debt, taxation [and] sepulchres - these are your trophies."
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
' was ‘crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism,'" and called for Lincoln's removal from the presidency. On May 5, Vallandigham was arrested as a violator of General Order No. 38. His enraged supporters burned the offices of the Dayton Journal, the Republican
History of the United States Republican Party
The United States Republican Party is the second oldest currently existing political party in the United States after its great rival, the Democratic Party. It emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas Nebraska Act which threatened to extend slavery into the territories, and to promote more vigorous...
rival to the Empire. Vallandigham was tried by a military court on May 6 and 7. He was denied a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
and was convicted by the military tribunal
Military tribunal
A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...
of "uttering disloyal sentiments" and attempting to hinder the prosecution of the war. He was sentenced to two years' confinement in a military prison. A Federal circuit judge upheld Vallandigham's arrest and military trial as a valid exercise of the President's war powers. President Lincoln wrote the "Birchard Letter
Birchard Letter
The Birchard Letter , was a public letter from United States President Abraham Lincoln to M. Birchard and eighteen other Ohio Democrats in which Lincoln defended the administration's treatment of antiwar agitators, and offered to release Clement Vallandigham if a majority of those to whom the...
" to several Ohio congressmen, offering to release Vallandigham if they would agree to support certain policies of the Administration. Lincoln, who considered Vallandigham a "wily agitator", was wary of making him a martyr to the Copperhead cause and thus ordered him sent through the enemy lines to the Confederacy. He was taken under military guard to Tennessee. Although he altered Vallandigham's sentence, Lincoln did not repudiate Burnside's military actions against a civilian. In response to a public letter issued at a meeting of angry Democrats in Albany, Lincoln's "Letter to Erastus Corning et al." explains his justification for supporting the court-martial's conviction.
In February 1864, the Supreme Court ruled that it had no power to issue a writ of habeas corpus to a military commission (Ex parte Vallandigham
Ex parte Vallandigham
Ex parte Vallandigham, , is a United States Supreme Court case, involving a former congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio, who had violated an Army order against the public expression of sympathy for the Confederate States and their cause...
, 1 Wallace, 243).
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
and then to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he declared himself a candidate for Governor of Ohio, subsequently winning the Democratic nomination in absentia. (Outraged at his treatment by Lincoln, Ohio Democrats by a vote of 411 -11 nominated Vallandigham for governor http://www.civilwarhome.com/vallandighambio.htm at their June 11 convention.) He managed his campaign from a hotel in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, where he received a steady stream of visitors and supporters. He asked in one speech, "Shall there be free speech, a free press, peaceable assemblages of the people, and a free ballot any longer in Ohio?" His platform included withdrawing Ohio (and any other Northern state that would agree) from the Union if Lincoln refused to reconcile with the Confederacy. Vallandigham lost the 1863 Ohio gubernatorial election in a landslide to pro-Union War Democrat John Brough
John Brough
John Brough was a War Democrat politician from Ohio. He served as the 26th Governor of Ohio during the final years of the American Civil War, dying in office of gangrene shortly after the war concluded....
, but his activism had left people of Dayton divided between pro- and anti-slavery factions. He appeared publicly in Ohio and openly attended the 1864 Democratic National Convention
1864 Democratic National Convention
The 1864 Democratic National Convention was held at The Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois. The Convention nominated General George B. McClellan for the Presidency, and Representative George H. Pendleton for the Vice-Presidency. McClellan, age 37 at the time of the convention and Pendleton, age 39,...
in Chicago. He wrote the "peace plank" of the platform, declaring the war a failure and demanding an immediate end of hostilities. However, he was unable to block his party's nomination of pro-war General George B. McClellan
George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union...
for the presidency. Although Vallandigham was included on the Democratic ticket as Secretary of War, the contradiction between his and McClellan's views weakened Democratic efforts to win voters over.
After the war, Vallandigham returned to Ohio, lost his campaigns for Senate and the House of Representatives on an anti-Reconstruction platform, and then resumed his law practice. By 1871 he won the Ohio Democrats over to a "new departure
New Departure
New Departure may refer to:*New Departure , various attempts at cooperation between Irish Republicans and Home Rulers in the late 19th century...
" policy that would essentially neglect to mention the Civil War.
Vallandigham's assertion that "he did not want to belong to the United States" prompted Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman. He was a child prodigy who exhibited extraordinary literary skills and at age thirteen was enrolled at Harvard University where he graduated second in his class...
to write The Man Without a Country
The Man Without a Country
"The Man Without a Country" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published anonymously in The Atlantic in December 1863. It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for treason and is consequently sentenced to spend...
. This short story, which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
in December 1863, was widely republished.
Death
Vallandigham died in 1871 in Lebanon, OhioLebanon, Ohio
The population at the 2010 census was 20,033. As of the census of 2000, there were 16,962 people residing in the city. The population density was 1,440.6 people per square mile . There were 6,218 housing units at an average density of 528.1 per square mile...
, at the age of 50, after accidentally shooting himself with a pistol. He was representing a defendant in a murder case for killing a man in a bar room brawl. Vallandigham attempted to prove the victim had in fact killed himself while trying to draw his pistol from a pocket when rising from a kneeling position. As Vallandigham conferred with fellow defense attorneys in his hotel room, he showed them how he would demonstrate this to the jury. Grabbing a pistol he believed to be unloaded, he put it in his pocket and enacted the events as they might have happened, shooting himself in the process. Vallandigham proved his point, and the defendant, Thomas McGehan, was acquitted and released from custody. Clement Vallandigham, however, died of his wound. His last words expressed his faith in "that good old Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
doctrine of predestination
Predestination
Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...
." Survived by his wife, Louisa Anna (McMahon) Vallandingham, and his son Charles Vallandigham, he was buried in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio
Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio
Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum , located at 118 Woodland Avenue, Dayton, Ohio, is one of the oldest "garden" cemeteries in the United States....
.
John A. McMahon
John A. McMahon
John A. McMahon was a United States Representative from Ohio. He was the nephew of Clement Vallandigham, another Representative from Ohio....
, Vallandigham's nephew, was also a U.S. Representative from Ohio.
Further reading
- Vallandigham, James L. A Life of Clement L. Vallandigham. Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, 1872.