COLUMBIANA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY PART 4 (published 1898)
***********************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE:  All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter.  Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.
***********************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Gina M. Reasoner
AUPQ38A@prodigy.com 
March 21, 1999
***********************************************************************

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, by Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        The 17th of September, 1863, was a proud day for the inmates of the
mansion. It was in the midst of the exciting Vallandigham campaign when was
witnessed the tremendous outpourings of the Democracy in every part of the
State to bring back "their exiled hero" from Canada as Governor of Ohio. On
that day one of those wild, surging, enthusiastic political processions
passed by the place.
          "Over the gateway," said the Wellsville patriot, "was a plain
white muslin, bearing the simple inscription, 'VALLANDIGHAM'S BIRTHPLACE,'
and upon the grassy lawn, near the old homestead, now rendered dear to
every freeman, stood the aged mother of Hon. C.L. Vallandigham, the great
apostle and champion of human rights during the reign of terror and
high-handed usurpations of the Lincoln administration. What must have been
her feelings when that great procession of freemen as they passed sent
forth their hearty huzzas in honor of her exiled and persecuted
son!.....'Vallandigham's birthplace' is now consecrated and classical
ground, and the present century will not have passed into eternity until
pilgrimages will be made from every spot where the fire of liberty is
unquenched and sages and patriots will revere the spot and love to look
upon it as every freeman does the hallowed grounds of Mount Vernon,
Monticello, the Hermitage or Ashland.

        The family still occupy the old home, and ere we left the place we
obtained a pamphlet containing the lecture of Mr. Vallandigham upon the
Bible, of which he was a close student, and a book, as he once wrote in a
letter to his brother James, "without an intimate and constant study of
which no man's education can be finished and no man's character can be
complete."
        The ancestors of Mr. Vallandigham were on the paternal side,
Huguenots and on the maternal Scotch-Irish. The family came from French
Flanders and the original name was Van Lendeghem. It was under that name
that his ancestors came to Stafford, county, Virginia, in 1690. These were
Michael Van Lendeghem and Jane, his wife. A son of these, who had become a
lessee in Fairfax county under Lord Fairfax, for more agreeable sound and
easier pronunciation, changed his family name from Van Lendeghem to
Vallandigham. His father, Clement Vallandigham, was born in Allegheny
county, Pennsylvania, was an Old School Presbyterian clergyman and came to
New Lisbon in 1807, where he was ordained pastor and commenced preaching
the Gospel under a tent. His congregation were largely Scotch-Irish people
who had settled in and around the place. He died in 1839 and is remembered
as a small man, who, though not a great preacher, was a most exemplary
character, to whom his congregation were strongly attached, and he thus
filled the very excellent role of a much-beloved village pastor.
        His salary being insufficient for his support, he to make up the
deficiency and to prepare his four sons for college, established a
classical school in his own house, which is here shown by the engraving.
This school was later continued by his two oldest sons. Here were taught
the Armstrongs, the Begges, the Blocksomes, the Brookes, the Grahams, the
Harbaughs, the Hissins, the McCooks, the McKaigs, the McMillans, the
Richardsons and others who have occupied high positions in the professions
and in business. Among them was the late General Wm. T.H. Brookes, a
gallant officer in the Mexican war and in the late civil war, and Col. Geo.
W. McCook, who was in 1871 the Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio.
        His son, Clement, here began his education, and before, he was two
years old acquired the alphabet and was ready for college years before he
was old enough to enter. All through his early life he was a great reader
and an untiring student.
        Mr. Vallandigham graduated at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg,
Pennsylvania, and began the practice of the law at New Lisbon. In 1845 he
was elected to the legislature, and, although the youngest member, became
the leader of the Democratic party in the House, but voted against the
repeal of the Black Laws, preferring to submit the question to popular
vote, declaring that he so voted because the "measure would result in the
most effectual putting down of this vexed question for perhaps twenty years
to come. It would probably fail as the question of negro suffrage in New
York, where the people had voted against it by a majority of 50,000."
        In 1847 he removed to Dayton, where he became part owner and editor
of the Western Empire and continued the practice of his profession. In his
salutatory address he said: 'We will support the Constitution of the United
States in its whole integrity," "protect and defend the Union," "maintain
the doctrine of strict construction" and "stand fast to the doctrine also
of STATE RIGHTS, as embodied in Mr. Madison's Virginia report and Mr.
Jefferson's Kentucky resolutions of 1798." He also advocated "free trade,"
"a fixed tenure to every office under the Federal Government that will
properly admit it" and "popular educations."
        The newspaper was not a satisfying scope for his larger ambition.
He was a thoughtful, studious writer, but his pen was not adapted to the
lighter but no less important details necessary for successful editorship.
In 1852 he made a strenuous effort to secure the Democratic nomination for
Lieutenant-Governor, but was defeated by Wm. Medill, and over this result
he felt very bitter. In 1856 he was nominated by the Democracy of his
district for Congress, his competitor being Col. Lewis D. Campbell, called
the "Butler County Pony." The latter was declared elected. The election
being contested, Vallandigham was awarded the seat. He continued a member
until March, 1863, he having been defeated in his canvass for re-election
in the State election the year before by Gen. Robert L. Schenck. While in
Congress he was adjudged one of the ablest debaters and best
parliamentarians on the floor of the House and as honest in his purposes
and sincere in his convictions. He opposed the war because he believed that
it was impossible to conquer the South.
        Having returned home, Mr. Vallandigham engaged with his usual
boldness to denounce the war, the draft then pending and, as Whitelaw Reid
expresses it, "stirred up the people with violent talk and particularly
excited them over alleged efforts on the part of the military authorities
to interfere with freedom of speech and the press, which he conjured them
to defend under any circumstances and at all hazards."
        It was then a most gloomy period in the progress of the war and
Gen. Burnside, who had just been put in command of the military department
of the Ohio, under date of April 13, 1863, issued form his headquarters at
Cincinnati the famous "General Order No. 38," wherein he proclaimed that
henceforth.
        ".......All persons within our lines who commit acts for the
benefit of the enemies of our country will be tried as spies or traitors,
and if convicted will suffer death....The habit of declaring sympathy for
the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons committing such
offences will be at once arrested, with a view to being tried as above
stated or sent beyond our lines into the lines of their friends. It must be
distinctly stated that treason expressed or implied will not be tolerated
in this department.'

        Vallandigham, angered at this order, expressed his determination to
defy it and to assert his constitutional right to discuss the policy of the
administration in the conduct of the war, and announced that he would speak
at a Democratic mass-meeting to be held at Mount Vernon on Friday, the 10th
of May, which he did, and to a large audience.
        Beginning with an allusion to the American flag, which was flying
over them, he said, "that was the flag of the Constitution; that it had
been rendered sacred by Democratic Presidents;" claimed that the Union
could have been saved if the plans he had proposed had been sanctioned and
adopted; he declared that he abided by the Constitution; that he "was a
freeman;" that he did not ask Dave Tod, Abraham Lincoln or Ambrose E.
Burnside for his right to speak as he had or was doing; that his "authority
for so doing was higher than General Order No. 38; it was General Order
No.1 - the Constitution!" that "the only remedy for all the evils was the
ballot box."
        Some of his more intemperate remarks having been reported to Gen.
Burnside, on the Monday following he dispatched a company of the 115th
Ohio, under Capt. Hutton, by a special train to Dayton to arrest him, which
was effected that night and he returned immediately to Cincinnati with his
prisoner. A scene of wild excitement the next day ensued in Dayton; the
streets were crowded with his friends and adherents and that night the
office of the Republican newspaper was burnt by a mob. Gen. Burnside sent
up an ample military force and, proclaiming martial law, quelled all
further disturbance.
        The day after his arrest Mr. Vallandigham issued the following 
address:

        TO THE DEMOCRACY OF OHIO: I am here, in a military bastile for no
other offence than my political opinions, and the defence of them and the
rights of the people, and of your constitutional liberties. Speeches made
in the hearing of thousands of you, in denunciation of the usurpation of
power, infractions of the Constitution and laws, and of military,
despotism, were the causes of my arrest and imprisonment. I am a Democrat;
for Constitution for law, for Union, for liberty; this is my only crime.
For no disobedience to the Constitution, for no violation of law, for no
word, sign or gesture of sympathy with the men of the South, who are for
disunion and Southern independence, but in obedience to their demand, as
well as the demand of Northern Abolition disunionists and traitors, I am
here to-day in bonds; but
                "Time, at last, sets all things even."

        Meanwhile, Democrats of Ohio, of the Northwest, of the United
States, be firm, be true to your principles, to the Constitution, to the
Union, and all will yet be well. As for myself, I adhere to every
principle, and will make good, through imprisonment and life itself, every
pledge and declaration which I have ever made, uttered or maintained from
the beginning. To you, to the whole people, to time I again appeal. Stand
firm! Falter not an instant!
                                        C.L. Vallandigham


==== Maggie_Ohio Mailing List ====