Clement Laird Vallandigham

Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History

Vallandigham, Clement Laird, legislator; born in New Lisbon, O., July 29, 1820; was of Huguenot descent; studied at Jefferson College, Ohio; was principal of an academy at Snow Hill, Md.; and was admitted to the bar in 1842. In 1845-46 he was a member of the State legislature, and for ten years afterwards edited the Dayton Empire. An earnest Democratic politician, he was sent to Congress in 1857, in which body he was active until 1863, opposing all war measures of the government, and openly showing sympathy with the Confederates. His utterances proclaiming him to be an enemy of his country, he was arrested at his own house, near Dayton, May 4, 1863, under a military order, on a charge of " treasonable conduct." He was tried by a court-martial at Cincinnati, convicted, and sentenced to close confinement in a fortress for the remainder of the war. This sentence was modified by President Lincoln, who directed him to be sent within the Confederate lines, and, in the event of his returning without leave, to suffer the penalty prescribed by the court. On his release he went to Canada, and while there was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1863, but was defeated by John Brough by 100,000 majority. He was permitted to return to his home, and was a member of the national Democratic conventions in Chicago in 1864 and in New York in 1868. While engaged in a suit in court in Lebanon, O., he was mortally wounded by a pistol which he was handling in explaining an alleged fact to the jury, and died there, June 17, 1871.