Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/251

 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,