(1820 - 1871)
Clement Larid
Vallandigham: Martial Law, Habeus Corpus in the Civil War
(1820 - 1871)
Born in New Lisbon, Ohio, 29 July 1820, Vallandigham studied at
the New Lisbon Academy, attended Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 1 837 afid
1840, taught at a Maryland school in the intervening period, then privately
pursued legal studies in Ohio, passing the state bar in 1842. A noted New Lisbon
attorney, he won election to the state house of representatives in 1845 and
1846, moved to Dayton in 1847, bought a half-interest in the Dayton Empire, edited
it until 1849, and was the defeated Democratic candidate in the 1852 and 1854
congressional elections. A candidate again in 1856, he contested his third
defeat and won his seat in the U.S. House May 1 858. Narrowly reelected that
autumn, Vallandigham made a national reputation as a conservative and as a
contentious states-rights advocate. He became brigadier general of Ohio militia
in 1857, met with the captured abolitionist John Brown in 1859, subsequently
spread rumors of a national abolitionist conspiracy, then supported a moderate
course in the secession crisis, backing Democratic presidential candidate
Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.
Vallandigham opposed the Federal
government's prosecution of the Civil War, publishing a letter in the 20 Apr.
1861 Cincinnati Daily Enquirer stating his belief that the South could
not be coerced into reentering the Union. Supported by vocal immigrant and farm
constituencies in Ohio, he blamed the war on Pres. Abraham Lincoln and the
Republican Party, voted against national Conscription, refused to cooperate with
congressional war measures, and alienated the powers within his own political
party. A Copperhead, falsely believed to belong to the Knights Of The Golden
Circle, he was abandoned by the state's War Democrats in a fight to keep his
original congressional district intact. It was gerrymandered to contain a
minority of his supporters, and he was not reelected in 1 862. Determined to run
for the governorship in 1863, he began an unofficial campaign in spring 1862,
following Democratic victories in Dayton, and tried to rally support for his
candidacy over that of Democratic elder-statesman Hugh J. Jewett. The
preliminary Ohio Democratic convention met 28 Apr. and rejected Vallandigham's
bid for the gubernatorial nomination.
On 13 Apr. 1863, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E.
Burnside, Commmander of the Department Of The Ohio, had issued General Order No.
38, forbidding expression of sympathy for the enemy. On 30 Apr. Vallandigham
addressed a large audience in Columbus, made derogatory references to the
president and the war effort, then hoped that he would be arrested under
Burnside's order, thus gaining popular sympathy. It worked.
Arrested, against the
will of Lincoln and his cabinet, at his home at 2 a.m., 5 May, by a company of
troops, he was taken to Burnside's Cincinnati headquarters, tried by a military
court 6-7 May, denied a writ of habeas corpus, and sentenced to 2
years' confinement in a military prison. Following a 19 May cabinet meeting,
President Lincoln commuted Vallandigham's sentence. On 26 May the Ohioan was
taken to Confederates south of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and there entered Southern
lines. Outraged at his treatment, by a vote of 411 -11 state Democrats nominated
Vallandigham for governor at their 11 June convention.
Vallandigham was escorted by the
Confederacy to
Wilmington, N.C., and shipped out to, Bermuda, arriving there 1 7 June. He
traveled to Canada, arrived at Niagara Falls, Ontario, 5 July, and from there
and Windsor, Ontario, conducted his campaign for the governorship. Candidate for
lieutenant governor George Pugh represented Vallandigham's views at rallies and
in the press. Lincoln interested himself in the election, endorsed Republican
candidate John Brough, downplayed the illegalities of a civilian's arrest and
trial by military authorities, and claimed that a vote for the Democratic
contender was "a discredit to the country."
Lincoln and the military ignored Vallandigham's return
to the U.S, in disguise 14 June 1864. He established residence in 0hio, attended
the August national Democratic convention in Chicago, and helped construct the
disastrous "peace" plank in presidential candidate George B.
McClellan's platform.
After he lost a bid in 1867 for election to the state
senate, he resumed his law practice. In a Lebanon, Ohio, hotel, 16 June 1871, a
gun went off while he was demonstrating to other attorneys how a defendant's
supposed victim may have accidentally shot himself. He died there the following
day.
From the following, it will be apparent that Lincoln's reluctance to arrest Vallandigham was correct. Vallandigham's transformation from an isolated and harmless critic to an angry and formidable foe is evidenced by the following letter from Canada:
From M. C. Moe to Abraham Lincoln, July 7, 1864
Wattsburg Pa
July 7, 1864
Under existing circumstances I feel it my duty to inform you of the facts which have come to my knowledge within the last three months in reference to an insurrectionary movement in the northern states and in Canada against the Gov. of the U. S.
Mr Velandingham1
of Ohio while in exile in Canada made a thorough organisation of the deserters
from the union army and also as many of those that left here to get rid of the
draft as was possible and I am very sory to say that they have the cooperation
of a large nomber of my Countreymen (Canadians)
in their treasonable operations against your Gov. Every since the breaking up of
the plot to liberate the rebel prisoners on Johnson Island
there
has been a continual storeing of Arms & munitions of war both in Canada and
the northern States that that border on the Lakes to carry out
this most desperate and wicked act.
[Note Johnson's Island was a Union prison camp at Sandusky Bay on Lake Erie.]
There is also nine propellers and several side-wheel steamers at the service of those conspirators on the lakes and on your frontier towns. And it is also determined at all hazards to sieze the U. S. Gun-boat Mich. It has been positively stated to me by an officer in their ranks that Velandingham has an enrollment list containing the names of sixty four thousand one hundred that deserted from the U. S. A. four thousand Canadians and nine thousand Irish all living at present in Canada and in the states of Wis. Ill. Mich. Ohio Penn. & N. Y. two hundred and seventeen thousands up to the 15, of June last beside considerable forces in Mss. Ind. Ken. & Maryland also a large number of Officers and men now in the union army who are all anxiously waiting for the time to arrive to strike a deadly blow at this Gov. Vellandingham assures his followers of success and great Gains by plundering the black republicans as he calls them.
[Note There was a plot afoot in the summer of 1864 that involved the use of Canadian refugees and Copperheads to release Confederate prisoners held in Illinois, a preliminary step to seizing the governments of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The plot was discovered and thwarted. See a report of the trial of the conspirators in Official Records, Series II, Volume 8, 684-89.]
The whole affair is being very systematically arranged and large amounts of money are being contributed and agents sent to Canada to purchase provisions and stores of all kinds and every thing necessary for the Campaign. It is not intended to make any demonstration before the presidential election comes on if the south can hold out succesfully until that time and then they will concentrate their forces and commence their work of destruction on the lakes and the frontiers. Velandngham asserts positively that they will bring at least three hundred thousand men into the field armed and equipped for a campaign of one year if necessary, to hearl that tyrant Lyncoln from the high position he now occupies and restore peace and happiness to this once happy Poeple and again reinstate democracy in its purity.
It was by mere accident that I first learned any thing of these arrangements and then I placed myself in a position to get what information I could on the subject which I here give you which I trust will be of service to you in breaking up the whole affair before it is to late I am satisfied that if you inform the Gov. of Canada of what is going on he will cooperate with you in putting it down. I got all my information from a cousin of mine in Canada who is a Colonel in a Canadian Reg. raised for this expedition
If you find it necessary to make this
exposeure public you will be kind enough to withhold my name for if it should
become known that I was the party that exposed their plans it
my property (though small) if not my life would pay the forfeit
Your Obd Servt. &c
Canadian sentiment was, like sentiment in England during the Civil War, divided in sympathies. In Canada it was muddied further by the repeated American invasions of Canada during the preceding 50 years, by the subjection of the French Canadians, and by the exile of the Tories after the American Revolution. Nonetheless, the Emancipation Proclamation had an impact as evidenced by the following petition:
From J. Wilson et al. to Abraham Lincoln, November 8, 1864
Hamilton C. W.
November 8th 1864.
Sir,
We cannot refrain in this eventful epoch of the History of the United States, and when (to human view at least) the destinies of the great Republic, of which you are the head, either for weal or woe are pending upon the result of the present Elector Franchise -- from expressing our heartfelt sympathy with yourself & the principles you represent in this momentous struggle. The writer has been for several years past engaged in business in Canada and is therefore in this Province from legitimate motives; otherwise his post would be in the ranks of those loyal Republicans who eschewing every thing calculated to injure their Country, rally round the proud Standard whose device and motto are "The Constitution and Liberty".
We are perfectly conscious that notwithstanding the numerous and conflicting difficulties which have beset your path -- in spite of open rebellion and insidious hidden treason -- natheless hollow-hearted treachery on the part of pretended friends, -- the course you have pursued and are pursuing is the only one calculated to sustain the nation in it's integrity -- root out long sustained tho' corroding evils, and particularly that direst and most destructive of all social evils -- Slavery -- and ultimately restore to the people of the United States a sound and lasting peace based upon the immaculate and immutable principles of Religion, Truth and Honor.
This great desideratum has not only been the grand object of your achievement, but the very best means that human wisdom can devise have been adopted & are still being pursued by you to secure it. Having our trust in God and knowing that He overrules all the actions of men we sincerely believe that the present Election will result in your re-appointment to that office which you have so ably, heroically and conscientiously filled -- in order that you may complete the great work entrusted to your hands by the Almighty Disposer of human destinies.
"Be just and fear not
"Let all the ends thou aim'st at
"Be thy Country's, thy God's and Truth's
"Then if thou fall'st thou fall'st a blessed martyr."
The abolition of Slavery in connection with the restoration of the Union having been made a sine quâ non to the establishment of peace, the prayers and sympathies of the great and good are yours; and inasmuch as penalties awarded for infraction of the Law are necessary, we believe that a rigorous course of action in reference to those persons who while calling themselves true citizens are in fact the worst of all foes -- viz: hidden traitors, will meet with the moral support and strong approbation of discriminating right-minded persons. By such means wavering persons whose principles are not sound enough to prevent their falling into error, may by the dire effect of perpetrating evil as exemplified in the fate of factious leaders become at least harmless if not patriotic citizens. Hence we respectfully submit that men who do not hesitate to utter treasonable language, and speak in terms of vituperation of the chief Magistrate of a great Republic, should be visited with condign punishment. We allude to such overt acts as Governor Seymour, Benwood, James Brooks, Vallandigham1 and a host of others have committed. The consignment of such persons to durance vile as traitors and abettors of treason would be hailed with acclamation by tens of thousands of the great wise and good. Nor would so summary a process, we opine be either tyrannical or impolitic. Severity becomes a virtue when rightly applied-- Clemency a great and disastrous evil when unduly exercised.
[Note New York Governor Horatio Seymour; Benjamin Wood, editor of the New York Daily News, and brother of New York Mayor Fernando Wood; Congressman James Brooks of New York; and Clement L. Vallandigham, all noted Copperheads.]
We can assure your Excellency that the best and most intelligent people of Canada are this day earnestly praying that success in this Electoral struggle may attend the efforts of yourself and your friends. We believe that their prayers will be favorably answered -- and on your re-election that you will unwaveringly pursue the course you have already adopted by means of which American freedom -- freedom in the true sense of the word -- shall be permanently secured not only to the white man but to every enslaved child of Africa.
Thus will your name pass down to posterity with blessing and unborn millions in the future shall raise enduring monuments in token of their gratitude and admiration of the foremost patriot of his day -- the regenerator of society and the Manumitter of the Slave.
Such are the expectations and such the ardent wishes of amongst many millions
Your Excellency's humble & devoted Servants.
J. Wilson
and 100 others.
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