VALLxVNDIGHAM
VALLANDIGHAM
contested the seat of Lewis D. Campbell, and in
the 36tli and 37tli congresses, serving from May
25, 1858, to March 3, 1863. While in congress he
incurred the hatred of the North by his persistent
opposition to a vigorous prosecution of the war.
Although in public and private Mr. Vallan-
digham professed his devotion to the Union, he
maintained that it could not, in the nature of
things, be preserved by force of arms, which pe-
culiar attitude won for him the Confederate
sobriquet of "Union shrieker" and caused the
m ijority of loyalists to denounce him as a " Cop-
perhead." He was commissioned brigadier-gen-
eral of state militia in 1857; was secretary of
the Democratic national committee, 1860, and a
delegate to the convenT;ion at Charleston, S.C.,
in the same year. On May 5, 1888, by order of
General Bnrnside, he was seized at his home in
Dayton, Oliio, tried for treasonable utterances
by court-'iiartial and sentenced to confinement at
Fort Warren, Boston harbor, until the close of
the war, a sentence changed by President Lincoln
to banishment bej'ond the southern lines. He ap-
plied to the supreme court, in February, 1864. to
review by certiorari the proceedings of the mili-
tary commission, claiming to have been unlaw-
fully convicted, but the supreme court main-
tained the decision of the commission on the
ground that it had no power to review proceed-
ings ordered by a general officer of the United
States army. Mr. Vallandigham went from Wil-
mington to Bermuda and thence to Windsor,
Canada, where he arrived the following August.
Two of his nephews were also driven into the
southern Confederacy, one having been banished
with the McKaig family from Cumberland, Md.,
and the other, after a short imprisonment in
Fort McHenry, fled to Europe, and subsequently
ran the blockade and joined the Confederate
army. In February, 1864, he was visited at
Windsor by agents of the Order of American
Knights, who represented to him that the or-
ganization was purely political and self-defensive
in character and had no relations with the south-
ern Confederacy. Upon this representation, and
upon condition that he be permitted to modify
the constitution of the order, he subsequently'
allowed himself to be invested as Grand Com-
mander, although no copy of the revised constitu-
tion was shown to him, by which the title of the
order was changed to the Sons of Liberty. Un-
der his leadership 200,000 new members were
added to the organization in a few months. He
declared that if he could control the Sons of
Liberty, no shot should be fired save with the
understanding " that the idea of permanent dis-
union were completely abandoned " by the Con-
federacy; and furthermore, should there be an
attempt on the part of the order to rise in aid of
the Confederacy, unpledged to future reunion
with the North, he would himself report the in-
tended rising to President Lincoln. During his
exile he became the Democratic candidate for the
governorship of Ohio, but was defeated by John
Brough. In June, 1864, without any opposition
on the part of the government, he returned to
Ohio, where he learned that an uprising had been
planned by the Sons of Liberty for August 16,
knowledge of which had been kept from him as
Grand Commander, but he refused to be in any
way drawn into the movement. He was a dele-
gate to the Democratic national conventions of
1864 and 1868, being chosen as a substitute at the
latter; a member of the Philadelphia convention
of 1866, from which, however, he withdrew, and
was the unsuccessful candidate for U.S. senator
in 1868. He became editor of the Dayton Ledger,
1868; formed a law partnership with Judge
Daniel A. Haynes in 1870, and was a delegate to
the state convention of 1871, acting as chairman
of the committee on resolutions. He admitted
that his theory that the South could not be
coerced into the Union had been disproved by
the logic of events. In the defense of Tom Mc-
Geeham, who was accused of homicide and had
been his political enemy, he was killed by the ac-
cidental discharge of a pistol in his own liand,
while endeavoring to illustrate in the court-room
at Lebanon, Ohio, how the shooting had occurred.
His biography was written by his brother, James
Laird Vallandigham (q.v.). The date of his
death is June 17, 1871.
VALLANDIQHAM, James Laird, clergyman, was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, Marcli 13. 1812; son of the Rev. Clement and Rebecca (Laird) Vallandigham, and brother of Clement Laird Vallandigham (q.v.). He was graduated from Jefferson college, Canonsburg. Pa., in 1830; taught school, 1830-36; studied law, and practised in New Lisbon, 1837-43. He was married, Sept. 24. 1839, to Mary E., daughter of Lemuel Purnell and Elisa (Trideaux) Spence of Snowhill, Md, He subsequently prepared for the ministry with the Rev. Dr. A. O. Patterson; was licensed to preach by the presbytery of New Lisbon, April 16. 1845; ordained by the presbytery of Balti- more, Md., April 3, 1850, and was pastor at Pi-in- cess Anne and Rehoboth, Md., 1850-54; at New- ark, Del., 1853-60; White Clay Creek. Del., 1853-75, Head of Christiana, Del., 1853-93, and at Odessa, Del., 1894-95. During the civil war he shared the hatred which all those of his name incurred; was placed under arrest, and made to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Delaware college, 1874, and that of LL.D. from Westminster college, Columbia, Mo., 1881. He ^vas made a member of the Delaware society,
