Clement
Vallandigham was born in Lisbon, Ohio, on 29th July, 1820.
After attending Jefferson College and the Union Academy, he studied
law and was admitted to the bar in 1842. Vallandigham worked as a
lawyer in Dayton, Ohio and in 1845 became a member of the State house
of representatives.
A member of the Democratic Party,
Vallandigham was elected to Congress in 1858. A supporter of state's
rights and slavery, and on the outbreak
of the American Civil War he became
a leading opponent of President Abraham Lincoln.
With Fernando Wood, the mayor of New
York, he helped to form the Peace Democrats (Copperheads).
Vallandigham's views were unpopular in Ohio and he was defeated in
the 1862 election.
In 1863 Vallandigham made a serious of speeches attacking the administration
of President Abraham Lincoln. He was
arrested in May, 1863 and charged with violating general order no.
38 which threatened punishment to those declaring sympathy for the
enemy. Found guilty by a military commission, he was sentenced to
imprisonment. Soon afterwards Lincoln intervened and commuted his
sentence to banishment behind the Confederate
Army front lines.
After the war Vallandigham returned to Ohio and became a leading critic
of the Radical Republications. Clement
Vallandigham died on 17th June, 1871, after accidentally shooting
himself with a firearm that was an exhibit in a murder trial.
(1)
Clement Vallandigham, speech in New York
City (7th March, 1863)
The day after the Battle of Bull Run, by a vote unanimous save
two, Congress declared that the sole purpose of the war should be
the maintenance of the Constitution, restoration of the Union, and
the enforcement of the laws; and when these objects were accomplished,
the war should cease, without touching the domestic institutions,
slavery included, in the Southern states.
That pledge was given, and under it an army of 600,000 men was at
once raised; and it was repeated in every form till toward the close
of the second session of Congress. Then the Abolition senators and
representatives began first to demand a change in the policy of the
administration, they began to proclaim at the war must be no longer
for the Union and the Constitution but for the abolition of slavery
in the Southern states.
Now, sir, I repeat it and defy contradiction, that not a soldier enlisted,
out of the first 900,000, for any purpose than the restoration of
the Union and the maintenance of the Constitution. There was not one
single officer, so far as his public declarations were concerned,
whatever may have been the secret purposes of his heart, that did
not openly declare that the moment this object was changed to the
abolition of slavery, he would throw up his commission and resign.
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