COLUMBIANA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY PART 6 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO   By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

                        THE VALLANDIGHAM CAMPAIGN

        A vivid and interesting sketch of Vallandigham and the celebrated
campaign of 1863 was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer a few years
since. It consisted of personal reminiscences from the pen of the veteran
Ohio journalist, W. W. Armstrong, who was Secretary of State for Ohio from
1863 to 1865. It has a peculiar interest from being from a fellow-townsman
and a personal and political friend of Mr. Vallandigham, though not in
sympathy with his extreme views.

        After the adjournment of Congress in March, 1863, and while I was
Secretary of State, Vallandigham came to Columbus. He visited my office and
there informed me that he was candidate for the Democratic nomination for
Governor. As I was originally from his home county, and our families had
been friends, he counted upon my support for the position. I said to him
very frankly: "Colonel, this is not your time to run for Governor. I think
Hugh J. Jewett ought to be nominated."
        As usual, he gritted his teeth and said he was astonished that I of
all other men in the State, should be opposed to his nomination. I replied
that Jewett, by party usage, was entitled to a renomination if he would
take it; that his candidacy in 1861 had been judiciously managed; that his
speeches and letters had been patriotic and conservative, and that, being a
"war" Democrat, or not so radical as he (Vallandigham), that he would poll
a greater vote, and with the then dissatisfaction existing with the State
administration he could be elected; but he had made up his mind to be a
candidate and could not be swerved from his purpose........
        THE CONVENTION -The conservative Democrats of Ohio did not desire
to nominate Vallandigham for Governor, but his arrest, trial by Military
Commission and his banishment excited every radical and ultra peace
Democrat in the State, and they rallied in their strength at all the county
conventions and captured the delegates. One radical can always be counted
upon to do more work than ten moderate men. The day of the convention
approached, and it soon became evident that it would be the largest ever
held in the State, and would partake of the character of a mass-meeting
more than of an assemblage of cool and collected delegates.
        The day before the convention assembled the city of Columbus was
invaded by thousands of Democrats, bitter, assertive and defiant in their
determination that come what would, they would defy "Order No. 38" and
exercise what they claimed to be their constitutional right of free speech.
Convention day came, and with it delegation after delegation with bands of
music, flags flying, hickory bushes waving, from every section of the
State. Great processions with men on horseback and in wagons crowded the
streets, and the sidewalks were black with excited men. No hall in the city
was large enough to contain one-tenth of the bold Democracy present who
desired to attend the convention. It was held on the east front of the
State-House, in the open air.
        Ex-Governor Medill, of Lancaster, Ohio -once a leading and very
active Democratic politician, an old, good-looking bachelor -was chosen
President of the Convention. No useless time was spent in the
preliminaries. They were hurried through. The radicals soon ran away with
the convention, and Medill, always a good presiding officer, could hold no
check on the extravagant demonstrations in favor of the Man in Exile. A
vote by counties was demanded, and under the rules the demand was
sustained. The name of Hugh J. Jewett was presented before that of
Vallandigham. The announcement of Jewett's name was heard with almost grim
silence, and from his own county a tall delegate arose and declared that
Muskingum was for Vallandigham, and asked that Jewett's name be withdrawn.
The delegate who presented it declined to accede to the request. Then
Vallandigham's name was mentioned. The roar and noise of that crowd in his
favor could be heard for miles.
        The vote by counties began. Allen, Ashtabula, Auglaize, and even
old Ashtabula answered "Vallandigham!" The B's followed the same way
unanimously. When the Secretary reached the C's Cuyahoga county responded
solidly for Jewett and her vote was most vigorously hissed. And after that,
until Seneca county was reached, there was no vote for Jewett.
        VALLANDIGHAM NOMINATED. -The people became impatient, and it was
moved and seconded by thousands that the rules be suspended and
Vallandigham be nominated by acclamation. Medill put the motion, and it was
carried amidst the wildest shouts, the swelling notes of the crowd
reminding one of the fierce roar of the ocean in its almost turbulent
moments. In a moment Vallandigham was proclaimed the unanimous nominee of
the convention, and then was witnessed a scene of enthusiasm among "Val's"
friends that exceeded anything ever before known in the political history
of the United States. The jubilee continued for at least an hour. The next
step was the
        NOMINATION OF GEORGE E. PUGH FOR LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. -The game
little Senator did not want the nomination, but he could not resist the
demand made for his acceptance, and on that night in front of the Neil
House made one of the most fiery and eloquent speeches that ever fell from
the lips of this ever great and ready orator. It was defiant and audacious.
        THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. -The Democratic State Convention was
held in the second week of June, and two weeks later the Republican State
Convention convened. Governor Tod was confident of a renomination, but
Smith, of the Cincinnati Gazette, Halstead, of the Commercial and Cowles,
of the Cleveland leader, and others were afraid of his defeat were he
renominated. They conspired to nominate John Brough, and, although he
asserted he was not a candidate for nomination, his friends were at work
secretly and efficiently.
        Governor Tod and his supporters were thrown entirely off guard by
the loud assertions of Brough that he was not in the field for the
nomination. To the surprise and the mortification of Governor Tod he was
beaten for a renomination by a small majority. To do him justice, however,
I may say safely that had Tod worked personally with the delegates, as he
was advised to do, he would have outflanked the Brough managers. He stood
upon his dignity, his right for an indorsement, and went down. The personal
relations between Tod and Brough were never friendly after this convention.
Governor Tod had very many weaknesses, but he was kind-hearted and generous
to a fault. "My brave boy," as he styled the Ohio volunteers, never had a
better friend.
        JOHN BROUGH. -Brough was a great popular orator. He had a
sledge-hammer style about him that made him powerful. He used vigorous
English, and had a directness about him which always told with the people.
Like Tod, he was originally a Democrat; was at one time one of the editors
and proprietors of the Cincinnati Enquirer; was Auditor of State, retiring
from that office to go into the railroad business. He was not a tall man,
but was very fleshy and never very cleanly in his personal appearance. He
chewed enormous quantities of tobacco, did not believe in prohibitory laws,
and could not be labeled as the exemplar of any particular purity. Of him
some campaign poet wrote:
        "If all flesh is grass, as people say,
        Then Johnnie Brough is a load of hay."

        THE CAMPAIGN. -Both parties having placed their candidate in the
field there opened a campaign which, for excitement, for rancor, and for
bitterness will, I hope, never again be paralleled in this country.
Vallandigham in exile in Canada, the command of his forces was given George
E. .Pugh, while Brough led in person the Republican cohorts. Every local
speaker of any note joined in the battle of words and "Order No. 38" was
cussed and discussed, by night and by day, from the Ohio river to the lake
and from the Pennsylvania to the Indiana line, before great assemblages of
people. The great political meetings of 1840 were overshadowed in numbers
by the gathering of both Democrats and Republicans in 1863. It was the
saturnalia of politics.
        The Democratic meetings were especially notable for their size and
enthusiasm. Everywhere in the State were they very largely attended, but
particularly in the northwest, the Gibraltar of the Ohio Democracy, then as
now, and in the famed counties of the wheat-belt region, Richland, Holmes,
Crawford, et al., it was no unusual sight to see a thousand men, and
sometimes half as many women, mounted on horseback, forming a cavalry
cavalcade and escort body, and in each procession were wagon-loads of girls
dressed in white, each one representing a State of the "Union as it was."
Glee clubs were numerous and the song of
        "We will rally 'round the flag,
        Shouting Vallandigham and freedom."
was as common with the Democrats as was the other song with the Republicans:
        "Down with the traitors,
        Up with the stars.
        Hurrah, boys, hurrah,
        The Union forever."

        INTENSE EXCITEMENT. -The excitement became so intense in many
communities that all business and social relations between Democratic and
Republican families were sundered. Fight and knock-downs between angered
people were an every-day occurrence, and the wearing of a butternut pin or
an emblem of any kind by a Democrat was like water to a mad dog before the
irritated and intensely-radical Republicans. The women wore Vallandigham
and Brough badges, just as their feelings were enlisted, and if there is
intensity in politics or religion it is always among the sisters of the
different flocks.

continued in part 7


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