Page images
PDF
EPUB

Fourth regular cavalry commanded the two companies of cavalry forming the escort of Gen. Rosecrans, but which, for this occasion, were the escort of Vallandigham. A second small wagon, with a trunk and some other baggage, followed the vehicle containing the prisoner. Major Wiles and Capt. Goodwin rode in the wagon, Col. McKibben and Col. Ducat preceded, and the escort followed. Your correspondent, who was kindly permitted to form one of the party, went loosely and ad libitum.

The Procession on the Way-Such was the remarkable procession which at this silent hour passed along the streets of Murfreesboro, through the quiet and slumbering camps, and down the Shelbyville turnpike towards rebellious Dixie. Guard after guard, picket after picket, sentinel after sentinel, was passed, the magic countersign opening the gates in the walls of living men which, circle behind circle, surrounded the town of Murfreesboro.

The men on guard stood looking in silent wonder at the unwonted spectacle, little thinking that they were gazing on the great copperhead on his way through the lines. Stone river was passed, and several miles traversed when your correspondent began to wonder where the mythical "front" so often spoken of might be.

An Hour's Rest.-Just as the first faint dawn appeared in the east the party stopped at the house of Mr. Butler, in order to wait for daylight; for we were now near our outposts. The family stared about them in great surprise when they were wakened up, but made haste to provide whatever conveniences they could for enabling the party to take an hour's repose.

Here, for the first time, I was introduced to Vallandigham, and as none of us felt like sleeping we commenced what to me was an extremely interesting and profitable conversation. Mr. Vallandigham talked with entire freedom; told me with the greatest apparent frankness his views of the policy of the administration; discussed dispassionately the circumstances of his arrest and trial, and stated clearly what he supposed would be the ultimate results of his punishment. manifested no bitterness of feeling whatever, seemed inclined to do full justice to the government in reference to its dealings with himself, and spoke very respectfully of Gen. Burnside. In spite of my fixed opinion of the bad and dangerous character of the man I could not but entertain for him a sentiment of personal respect which I had never felt before.

He

An Apt Quotation.-After an hour passed in conversation there was an effort made to obtain a little sleep, and Mr. Vallandigham himself had just fallen into a doze when Col. McKibben waked him, informing him that it was daylight and time to move. Some poetical remark having been made about the morning, Mr. Vallandigham raised himself up on his elbow and said, dramatically:

"Night's candles are burnt out,

And jocund day stands tip-toe on misty mountain tops.

He had evidently forgotten the remaining line of the quotation, but it seemed so applicable to his own case, in view of the wrathful feelings of the soldiers towards him, that I could not forbear adding aloud,

"I must be gone and live, or stay and die."

I indulge in no vanity when I say that the extreme appositeness of the quotation startled every one that heard it, including Mr. Vallandigham himself.

Again Upon the March.-The cavalcade again set forth, and just as the first rays of sun tinged with gold the trees upon the western hills we reached our remotest outposts. Major Wiles and Col. McKibben now went forward with a flag of truce toward the enemy's videttes, who could be plainly seen stationed in the road, not more than half a mile off. The rest of the party halted, and Col. Ducat, Capt. Goodwin, Lieut. Kelly, Mr. Vallandigham and myself took breakfast at the house of a Mr. Alexander, just on the boundary line between the United States and Dixie. After all were seated at the table Col. Ducat informed Mrs. Alexander, who presided, that one of the gentlemen before her, pointing him out, was Mr. Vallandigham.

66

Immediately the woman turned all sorts of colors, and exclaimed, Can it be possible? Mr. Vallandigham! Why I was reading only last night of your wonderful doings! I must introduce you to the old man, shure!

The "old man is understood to be much more than half "Secesh," and he and not a remarkably handsome daughter united in giving the prisoner a warm welcome.

Vallandigham in Dixie.-After breakfast was over, and while waiting for the return of the flag of truce, I had another long and interesting conversation with Mr. Vallandigham, which I shall again have occasion to refer to.

The flag at length returned, and Col. Webb of the Fifty-first Alabama having signified his willingness to receive the prisoner, Major Wiles and Capt. Goodwin alone accompanied him a short distance within the rebel lines and handed him over to a single private soldier sent to take him in charge.

By nine o'clock the whole matter was over, and the party mounting their horses galloped back upon the now heated and husky turnpike to Murfreesboro.

The bearing of Mr. Vallandigham throughout the whole affair was modest, sensible and dignified, and so far as the man could be separated from his pernicious principles won him respect and friends.

In conversation with your correspondent he candidly admitted that the dealings of the government with himself were necessary and justifiable if the Union was to be restored by

war.

He admitted that in that case the government would be obliged to use all the physical force of the loyal States and could tolerate no opposition. This, however, he declared would be at the expense of the free principles

of the constitution; whereas he thought by the adoption of his plan, not only might these principles be conserved, but the Union of the States ultimately restored.

The life of Mr. Vallandigham by his brother, Rev. James L. Vallandigham, gives some interesting items. His interview with Gen. Rosecrans lasted about four hours. At first Rosecrans was disposed to lecture him for his opposition to the war and concluded by remarking, "Why, sir, do you know that unless I protect you with a guard, my soldiers will tear you in pieces in an instant?" To this Mr. Vallandigham in substance replied, "That, sir, is because they are just as prejudiced and ignorant of my character and career as yourself; but, General, . I have a proposition to make. Draw your soldiers up in a hollow square tomorrow morning and announce to them that Vallandigham desires to vindicate himself, and I will guarantee that when they have heard me through they will be more willing to tear Lincoln and yourself to pieces than they will Vallandigham." The General shook his head, saying, "he had too much regard for the life of his prisoner to try it." The genial manner of his prisoner won upon him, and when he arose to go he put his hand on Mr. V.'s shoulder and said to Col. McKibben, of his staff, "He don't look a bit like a traitor, now does he, Joe?' and on parting shook him warmly by the hand.

When he was left in charge of the Confederate sentinel, hours elapsed before word could be sent and returned from Gen. Bragg, whose headquarters at Shelbyville were some sixteen miles away. "They were hours," said Mr.Vallandigham, "of solitude, but calmly spent-the bright sun shining in the clear sky above me, and faith in God and the future burning in my heart." He was kindly received by General Bragg in Shelbyville, where he remained a week, mostly in seclusion, and then was directed to report on parole to General Whiting at Wilmington, from which place he took, on the 17th of June, a blockade-runner to Nassau and thence by steamer to Canada, where he arrived early in July and awaited events. The Ohio Democratic Convention which had met in June at Columbus had by acclamation nominated him for Governor.

The banishment of Vallandigham and sentence by court martial created a profound sensation throughout the country, and a large Democratic meeting held at Albany, presided over by Erastus Corning, passed a series of resolutions condemnatory of the "system of arbitrary arrests," and asking President Lincoln to "reverse the action of the military tribunal which has passed a cruel and unusual punishment upon the party arrested, prohibited in terms by the Constitution, and restore him to the liberty of which he had been deprived."

To this request Mr. Lincoln made a full, frank reply, putting in it some of his characteristic, homely touches of humor, for instance saying: "I can no more be persuaded that the government can consti tutionally take no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully taken in time of peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man, because it can be shown not to be good food for a well one." He closed by stating that when he felt that the public safety would not suffer thereby he should with great pleasure accede to their request.

The Ohio Democratic Convention, which met in June in Columbus, after nominating Mr. Vallandigham for Governor, passed resolutions strongly condemning his banishment as a palpable violation of four specified provisions of the Federal Constitution, and appointed a committee, largely ex-Congressmen, to go to Washington and intercede for his release. This committee, as will be seen by their names appended, were gentlemen of high character, a majority of whom are yet living, though some quite aged and feeble: Mathias Burchard, formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court; George Bliss, member of Congress from the Akron District; ex-Governor Thomas W. Bartley; Hon. W. J. Gordon, of Cleveland, a wealthy retail merchant; Hon. John O'Neil, late President pro tem. of the Ohio Senate; George S. Converse, of Columbus; Louis Shaefer, of Canton; Abner L. Backus; Congressmen George H. Pendleton, Chilton A. White, W. P. Noble, Wells A. Hutchins, F. C. LeBlond, William E. Finck, Alexander Long, J. W. White, J. F. McKinney and James R. Morris.

In the correspondence which ensued Mr. Lincoln offered to accede to their request provided they would agree, as individuals, to certain specified things in aid of the forcible suppression of the rebellion. To this they would not agree, regarding the proffer as involving an imputation upon their sincerity and fidelity as citizens of the United States, and stating that they had asked for Mr. Vallandigham's release as a right due the people of Ohio.

"At this point," says Mr. Greeley in his "History of the American Conflict," "the argument of this grave question concerning the right in time of war of those who question the justice or the policy of such war to denounce its prosecution ast mistaken and ruinous, was rested by the President and his assailants-or rather it was transferred by the latter to the popular forum where, especially in Ohio, it was continued with decided frankness, as well as remarkable pertinacity and vehemence. And one natural consequence of such discussion was to render the Democratic party more decidedly, openly, palpably anti-war than it had hitherto been."

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 a 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 renominated.'

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 StateHouse, in the open air.

Ex-Governor Medill, of Lancaster, Ohioonce a leading and very active Democratic politician, an old, good-looking bachelorwas 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 Medil, always a good presiding officer, could hold no check on the extravagant demonstra

tions 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, Ash

land, 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 most 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 kindhearted and generous to a fault. "My brave boys,' 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 candidates 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. Fights 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 or 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.

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 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. Hundreds of little "Sam Coxes" are named after him, and the old Democracy remember his sunshiny and cheery ways and are jealous of the Turk who has him now within his boundaries. Every Democratic orator in Ohio in 1863 acquitted himself with credit, and was busy from the beginning to the closing of the fight.

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 Democrats 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 for which it was passed.

[ocr errors]

Vallandigham in Exile.-While the great fight in his behalf in Ohio was being waged Vallandigham, like a caged hon, was fretting and worrying, was watching and waiting over the border." He made his head-quar

[ocr errors]

ters 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

« PreviousContinue »