COLUMBIANA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY PART 7 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        LUDICROUS INCIDENTS. -I was an eye-witness on the occasion of a
Democratic mass-meeting at Kenton, to a lively scrimmage between several
Democratic and Republican girls in which there was pulled hair, scratched
faces and demoralized wardrobes, and, strange to say, the surrounding crowd
of men interfered only to see fair play between the combatants. Another
instance, and a ludicrous one, I recollect. At McCutchenville, Wyandot
county, on one of the brightest of autumnal days, there was a Democratic
meeting in a grove adjacent to the town. Judge Lang, of Tiffin, and myself
were the speakers of the day.
        While the Judge was addressing the people, a gaunt, tall young
lady, wearing a Brough badge, stepped up behind a fat chunky little girl,
who was sitting on a log, and snatched from her dress the Vallandigham
badge she was wearing. The little girl turned around, eyed the trespasser
but a moment, and then made one lunge, and with the awkward blow that a
woman delivers, hit the Brough girl under the chin and brought her to the
ground. With her eyes snapping fire, and her cheeks aflame, she put her
arms up akimbo, and, like a little Bantam rooster, spreading his wings,
hissed out: "I can whip any ____ Brough girl on the ground." Such
occurrences were frequent, and all manner of tricks, by both parties, were
played upon speakers and orators. The only wonder is, thinking of the
bitter feeling engendered, that more bodily harm was not done.
        THE ORATORS, ETC. -Colonel "Dick" Merrick, of Maryland, who died a
few months ago in Washington City, ex-Governor Hendricks, Hons. J.E.
McDonald and D.W. Voorhees, of Indiana, were among the many distinguished
speakers from other States who participated in the Ohio canvass. Morton, of
Indiana, Harrison of the same state, Secretary Chase and leading
Republicans from the East assisted Brough and the local Republican orators.
One of the most effective Republican speakers on the stump was Colonel
"Bill" Gibson, of Seneca county, and one of the most sought after orators
in Northern Ohio was Hon. A.M. Jackson of Bucyrus, whose "heavenly tone"
made him conspicuous in the battle for "free speech."
        SUNSET COX. -Sam Cox, then representing the Columbus district in
Congress, had frequent opportunities to air his eloquence and show his
pluck. On a September day he had had a meeting near Camp Chase, in Franklin
County. The soldiers there announced that he should not speak. The
Democrats declared that he should and must, so "Sunset" was accompanied to
his meeting by a hundred city Democrats, armed with revolvers, while the
country Democrats came pouring in loaded down with rifles and shotguns. The
soldiers, seeing that they would be promptly met with their own weapons,
concluded that Cox might expound at will without interruption. Cox then
made a good speech; and when or where was the occasion that he ever made a
poor one? In his old district in Ohio he is as popular now as he was then.
Hundred of little "Sam Coxes" are named after him, and the old Democracy
remember his sunshiny and cheery ways are jealous, of the Turk who has him
now within his boundaries. Every Democratic orator in Ohio is 1863
acquitted himself with credit, and was busy from the beginning to the
closing of the fights.
        THE RESULT. -The strain on the public mind was intense. All men of
all parties and all classes were anxious for the strife to be over. The
Democrat's in the last weeks of the campaign felt that they were beaten,
but the splendid discipline of the Democratic organization was manifested
by their determined effort to the very last hour of election day. The vote
cast for Vallandigham showed what a hold he had on the people, being the
highest vote then ever cast for a Democrat in the State. Brough's majority
on the home vote was 61,927, but the vote of the soldiers in the field ran
his majority up to about 100,000, or a little over. Only about 3,000 votes
were cast for Vallandigham by the soldiers in the field. The law, however,
was very defective and admirably calculated to give unlimited opportunities
for a duplication of votes. It was crude and unsatisfactory, but as a war
measure "it served the purposes of which it was passed.
        VALLANDIGHAM IN EXILE. -While the great fight in his behalf in Ohio
was being waged Vallandigham, like a caged lion, was fretting and worrying,
was "watching and waiting over the border." He made his head-quarters most
of the time at a little hotel in Windsor, Canada, a small town opposite
Detroit. From the windows of his room he could see a gun-boat, with the
American flag flying, which had been detailed to protect the Detroit river.
His sarcastic remarks in reference to his prosecutors, and to his political
opponents, who were preventing him from leading his own campaign in Ohio,
were heralded throughout the land, and spies were numerous, keeping vigil
that he should not return.
        It was about agreed upon at one time that Vallandigham should come
to Lima, Ohio, and make a speech, in defiance of his sentence and the
authorities, but the more conservative Democratic leaders were satisfied
that an attempt would be made to rearrest him, which would bring about riot
and bloodshed, and in deference to their wishes Vallandigham did not
return, although he could easily have escaped from Canada, as he did in
1864, when he crossed to Detroit in disguise, entered a sleeping-car, and
the next morning appeared at a Democratic Convention at Hamilton, Ohio,
where he was chosen unanimously as a delegate, to the Chicago Convention.
He was enthusiastically received by the Democratic people, and remained
unmolested by the civil and military authorities. Vallandigham was prompted
to return by political friends in his own district, who had vainly labored
to have him nominated for delegate-at-large to the Chicago Convention.
Judge Rufus P. Ranney, of Cleveland, was the choice over him by a small
majority in a very excited convention.
        THE END. -After 1868 Vallandigham pursued the profession of the law
with ardor, and to his enthusiasm in the defense of a client he met with
the accident that deprived him of life. His last appearance in the
political arena was at the Democratic State Convention in Columbus in the
first part of June, 1871. He was a delegate, and, I think, chairman of the
Committee on Resolutions, and secured the passage in the convention of what
is known in Ohio politics as the "new departure" resolutions, pledging the
Democracy to the recognition and validity of all the amendments to the
constitution, including the fourteenth. A week or two after this convention
he came to his death in a room at a hotel in Lebanon, Ohio, by the
accidental discharge of a pistol. He died as he lived, courageously, but
sensationally.
        Had Vallandigham survived to this date (1886) he would have been
but sixty-six years of age, younger than Thurman, younger than Payne, and
about the same age as Durbin Ward, George H. Pendleton, George W. Morgan,
John O'Neil, Frank Le Blond and other prominent Ohio Democrats.
        Had he not been called away I think that by his eloquence, by his
logic and his high order of talent he would have worn out and dissipated
the bitter prejudice which existed against him. He had a good personal
resonant voice, a dignified bearing and those faculties which enabled him
to have a magnetic power over the people. The prize which he always looked
forward to see a reward for his party services was a seat in the United
States Senate, and he was chagrinned to the heart when it escaped him in
1867. In his private and domestic circle he was charming, and although
there will always be a discussion as to the right and policy of the
position he assumed during the war, no one will deny that he had a profound
love for the constitution of his country and was unwavering and unswerving
in adhering to any position that he deemed right.


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