Ohio History Journal

VALLANDIGHAM AS AN EXILE IN CANADA 1863-1864   by FRANK L. KLEMENT     While Clement L. Vallandigham lived in Canada for nearly a year during the Civil War as an exile from the United States, his path crossed those of a number of men well-known in Canadian history. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, emerging as a critic of the Canadian government, befriended and defended the exile. Charles J. Brydges, superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railroad, gave a dinner in Vallandigham's honor and presented him with a pass on his railroad. And George Brown, the influential editor of     NOTES ARE ON PAGES 208-210

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the Toronto Globe and a political power in Canada West, did all he could

to discredit the exile and shape public opinion against him. Officially, the

Canadian government gave Vallandigham no recognition, friendly or

otherwise; unofficially, George Brown's editorials bespoke the views of

the John Sandfield Macdonald ministry and of the Liberals, who gave

the coalition government a scant majority in the legislative assembly.

Even before Vallandigham arrived in Canada as an exile, his name

appeared occasionally in the country's press. Early in the American Civil

War he had twisted the tail of the British lion and twitted William H.

Seward, his country's secretary of state, for surrendering James M. Mason

and John Slidell to the British to settle the Trent imbroglio. During 1862

Vallandigham's advocacy of peace and compromise and his blatant criti-

cism of the Lincoln administration gave him more frequent mention in

Canadian newspapers. Then, in May 1863, Vallandigham's name flashed

along the telegraph wires as news stories related accounts of his summary

arrest and trial by military authorities in Ohio. Leading Canadian news-

papers reported that Lincoln's foremost critic had been banished to the

Confederacy and that his party, in turn, had nominated him as the

Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio. Reports made the rounds

that Vallandigham expected to find his way to Canada to conduct his

campaign for the governorship of Ohio from a Canadian base.1

Clement L. Vallandigham first set foot on Canadian soil on July 5,

1863, when he arrived in Halifax aboard the Harriet Pinckney. Details

of his journey from Cincinnati to Canada came to light. After being

exiled to the southern Confederacy, Vallandigham had journeyed to

Wilmington, North Carolina, run the blockade aboard the Lady Davis,

arrived in Bermuda, and taken the first boat bound for a Canadian port.

The exile received a rather friendly reception in Halifax. Since he

symbolized opposition to the Lincoln administration, certain Halifax

citizens lent him their sympathy. Some Halifax merchants had invested

heavily in blockade runners like the Will o' the Wisp and the Isabella

Thompson. At the time Vallandigham reached Nova Scotia, the Halifax

merchants who had chartered the Will o' the Wisp were demanding dam-

ages from the United States for illegal seizure of the schooner, and

those who owned shares in the Isabella Thompson were expressing indigna-

tion over the capture of their ship by a blockading squadron. Then, too,

several days before the exile's arrival in Halifax, a Yankee gunboat had

visited the port, and its crew had received a most hostile treatment. When

the apprehensive Yankee captain had taken on coal and put out to sea

at the earliest possible moment, he heard the crowd on the wharf give

three resounding cheers for Jefferson Davis and the southern Confederacy.2

Vallandigham's stay in Halifax was brief indeed. He booked passage

on the schooner Daniel P. King bound for Pictou with mail and a general

cargo. He secured hotel accommodations for the night. And he hurried to

the telegraph office to send off several messages, one to his Dayton friends

to say that he expected to meet them at the Clifton House, Niagara, Canada

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VALLANDIGHAM AS AN EXILE                                       153

 

West, on the thirteenth. He also sent $170 in bank notes, given him on

his trip through the Confederacy, to a Philadelphia destination via express.3

The American consul in Halifax dutifully reported Vallandigham's

arrival, and he noted with interest where the exile went and with whom

he talked. "His intimate associates here," wrote the concerned consul,

"were the most violent secessionists and supporters of the Confederate

cause."4

After the American exile had left for Pictou on the morning of July 7,

the editor of the Novascotian composed a pro-Vallandigham editorial which

proved that pro-southern sentiment was strong in Halifax. The editor

explained Vallandigham's position sympathetically and implied that Presi-

dent Abraham Lincoln had acted like a military dictator and an enemy

of the traditional English liberties.5

When Vallandigham arrived at Pictou, he found the Lady Head in port,

being readied to sail for Quebec and in-between ports. After the line

of passengers and the sacks of mail were transferred from the Daniel P.

King, the Lady Head raised anchor and sailed for Quebec. Wearisome

stops at Shediac, Chatham, Newcastle, Dalhousie, Paspebiac, and Gaspe

tested the patience of the passengers.

The 168-ton iron steamship, with its cargo of mail, freight, and

eighty-seven passengers, arrived in Quebec Bay early on the morning of

July 11. In the early dawn "the exiled stranger" walked up Palace Street

and took a room at the Russell Hotel. The presence of several Cincinnati

citizens at the same hotel gave Vallandigham a chance to inquire about

the reaction to his arrest and his chances of being elected governor of

Ohio in the October 13 elections. Vallandigham also announced his inten-

tion to proceed as soon as possible to Niagara, Canada West, and take

up quarters at the Clifton House. His arrival in Canada received a

secondary notice in the country's press, for reports concerning the great

battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg monopolized most of the newspaper

columns.

Charles S. Ogden, the excitable United States consul stationed in Quebec,

rushed off a terse telegram to his superior in Washington: "C. L. Vallan-

digham is here."⁶ Ogden, who seemed to think that the main responsibility

of a consul was to serve as a spy and to clip Quebec newspapers, tried to

keep track of Vallandigham's movements and to find out the exile's plans.

It upset Ogden to note that prominent Quebec citizens called upon Vallan-

digham at his hotel; it galled him to have to report that Edward W. Watkin,

prominent English financier linked to various Canadian railroad and

commercial interests, and Charles J. Brydges, superintendent of the

Grand Trunk Railroad and a member of the elite Stadacona Club of

Quebec, escorted Vallandigham around the city to see various scenic

spots or places of historical interest.7

Watkin and Brydges persuaded Vallandigham to tarry a day in Quebec

so the two could give a dinner in the exile's honor next evening at the

Stadacona clubhouse. Quite a number of notables, including John A.

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Macdonald, onetime head of the Canadian government, attended the affair.

Watkin, London entrepreneur and president of the Grand Trunk Railroad,

presided as toastmaster. Neither Watkin, nor others who spoke briefly,

made mention of the American civil war or indicated whether their sym-

pathies lay with the North or South. They viewed the dinner as "mere

hospitality to a refugee" who had landed in Canada "in distress."⁸ Even-

tually, Vallandigham had a chance to thank his host and his newly found

Canadian friends for their gracious hospitality. He began his remarks

with an apology for appearing in a wrinkled suit and for the poverty

of his dress. "I can only explain," he added with a bid for sympathy,

"that I am standing in the clothes I was allowed to put on, after being

taken out of my bed, in my own house, without warning and without war-

rant, and I have not the means to reclothe myself." Then in a few

appropriate sentences, evidently without repentance or rancor, Vallan-

digham thanked Canada for extending him rights and freedoms which

the Lincoln administration had denied him.9

Later that evening Watkin and Brydges escorted the exile down to

the Grand Trunk Railroad depot. Watkin offered "a friendly loan," which

Vallandigham declined; Brydges offered a free railroad pass, which the

exile accepted. Before boarding the cars, Vallandigham thanked his friends

and supposed that he might return for a visit to Quebec in the near future,

but he was anxious to get to Niagara and the rendezvous with his political

friends.10

If Ogden, the American consul, or William H. Seward, United States

secretary of state, expected Canada to give Vallandigham an unfriendly

welcome, they were badly mistaken. In the first place, the English practice

of hospitality to exiles had been ingrained in the Canadians. In the

second place, most Democratic papers in the States depicted Vallandigham

as a martyr to free speech, and Canadian devotion to the traditional

English liberties tempted them to view the exile somewhat sympathetically.

Considerable antipathy to the Lincoln administration existed throughout

Canada, although pro-southern sympathy of the type exhibited in England

had little to do with it. United States brashness in diplomacy made more

of a contribution. At the time Vallandigham arrived in Quebec an uneasy

peace still existed between the United States and Canada--one Canadian

newspaper had earlier referred to the situation as "a war in anticipation."¹¹

United States Consul General Joshua R. Giddings, stationed at Montreal,

had shown a lack of good judgment by talking of his country's annexation

of the Canadas--at a later date he suggested how and when it should

be done.12 The indiscreet consul had also suggested that the reciprocity

treaty between Canada and his country, drafted for a ten-year term in

1854, be terminated as a lesson to British and Canadian commercial

interests. Then too, during the summer of 1862, British military experts

had visited Canada to examine all possible avenues of attack, for rumors

persisted that the Union army might be used to annex Canada after the

southern Confederacy had collapsed. Some Canadian newspapers, there-

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fore, expressed editorial sympathy for Vallandigham even before he set

foot upon Canadian soil. The Quebec Chronicle, for example, criticized

President Lincoln's justification of the summary treatment accorded

Vallandigham as "one of the most puerile compositions" ever emanating

from that "source."13

On the other hand, some forces worked for United States-Canadian

amity. The American civil war helped to bring economic prosperity to

Canada, and sensible Canadians, like George Brown of the Toronto Globe,

recognized that peace and a strict neutrality should be the logical policy.

Since sympathy for Vallandigham would violate the principle of strict

neutrality, Brown's editorials in the Globe expressed an anti-Vallandigham

tone. He labeled the exile "the chief of the Northern sympathizers with

the Southern rebellion" and correctly supposed that the Union victories

at Gettysburg and Vicksburg made Vallandigham's chance of gaining

the governorship of Ohio "very slender" indeed.14 The outspoken editor

of the Hamilton Times also betrayed his anti-Vallandigham views in his

editorials by calling the exile a "notorious individual" and an "apologist

for secession."¹⁵ The danger that Britain might recognize the Confederacy

or intervene in favor of the South had passed long before Vallandigham

set foot upon Canadian soil. Time had healed the injury to United States-

Canadian relations caused by incidents in 1861 and 1862, and the late

summer of 1863 represented "the most tranquil period" in relations be-

tween the two North American neighbors.16

The Canadian government of July 1863 was in no position to officially

give Vallandigham either a glad hand or a cold shoulder. Nearly two

months before Vallandigham had arrived in Quebec, the John Sandfield

Macdonald ministry had fallen because of the defection of French-Canadian

members on the second reading of a militia bill.17 John Sandfield Mac-

donald then ordered new elections and reconstituted his cabinet in prep-

aration for the general election. Macdonald joined forces with George

Brown and Antoine Dorian to form a new ministry, and he dropped

Louis V. Sicotte and Thomas D'Arcy McGee from his cabinet. The two

well-known Montreal members of the legislative assembly thereupon

joined the opposition.

The general election of 1863 proved to be a two-party battle between

the Liberals and the Liberal-Conservatives, with the former, led by John

Sandfield Macdonald, securing a two or three vote majority in the new

(the eighth) parliament. The virtual deadlock -- the margin was so narrow

and the new coalition so unstable that the new ministry would be com-

pelled to walk the tightrope with care -- hampered the revised John

Sandfield Macdonald government (some historians call it the Macdonald-

Dorian ministry), and it avoided taking stands upon many issues, includ-

ing the presence of Clement L. Vallandigham upon Canadian soil. The

government, then, ignored Vallandigham's presence, although individuals

who supported the Macdonald ministry -- like George Brown of the

Toronto Globe -- would speak out against him. Oliver Mowat, a close

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156                                              OHIO HISTORY   associate of Brown and a Toronto "representation by population" man, held a ministry portfolio and helped pull chestnuts out of the fire for the editor of the Globe. So although the Macdonald government avoided going on record for or against the exile, most Liberals seemed to side with Lincoln in l'affaire Vallandigham. Conversely, several of the members of the opposition party, like the colorful Thomas D'Arcy McGee, publicly courted and publicly supported the exile. Vallandigham, meanwhile, passed through Montreal and Toronto on his way to Hamilton.18 There he changed trains for Niagara, arriving at the depot early on the morning of July 15. He hurried to the Clifton House and secured quarters there -- the Clifton House would be his

Canadian base until August 1. He found several American friends already in Niagara, impatiently awaiting his arrival. Daniel Voorhees, Indiana congressman and a bold critic of the Lincoln administration, had arrived on the thirteenth and had taken a room at the Stephenson House. Richard T. Merrick, a self-styled "peace man" from Chicago, brought a message from the editor of the Chicago Times. Joseph Warren, editor-publisher of the Buffalo Courier, crossed into Canada to give his fellow Democrat a greeting. Then there were some Ohio friends from Dayton and Cincinnati. Altogether, they comprised a good-sized reception committee.19 Even before he arrived in Niagara, Vallandigham had prepared "an address," a document in which he accepted his party's gubernatorial nomination and in which he enumerated the basic issues of the political

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campaign. In his "Address to the Democracy of Ohio," Vallandigham

donned the cloak of the martyr. He criticized President Lincoln for tramp-

ling upon traditional liberties and establishing a military despotism. He

advocated peace and reunion "through compromise." The "Address," in

effect, served as the political platform upon which the exile sought the

governorship of Ohio. It exhibited no trace of bitterness, for Vallandigham

had a blind faith in himself and his views, believing that time would vindi-

cate him and incriminate his enemies.

After Richard Merrick, on a mission for the Chicago Times, and Joseph

Warren, editor of the Buffalo Courier, received copies of Vallandigham's

"Address to the Democracy of Ohio," they shuffled off to Buffalo. Merrick

hustled to the telegraph office to try to transmit a copy of the "Address"

to the Chicago Times, but the partisan-minded telegraph operator refused

to send Vallandigham's composition over the wires, for he believed it a

treasonable document. Merrick then put the "Address" back in his

pocket and took the next train to Cleveland -- there the telegraphic opera-

tor would also refuse, and the Chicagoan would board the next train

bound for his home town.²⁰ Warren of the Buffalo Courier, meanwhile,

hurried to his print shop to have Vallandigham's "Address" set in type

and published in the morning issue of his newspaper. Warren and the

Courier, thus, scored a scoop. Before the week was over, however, nearly

every Democratic party organ in the United States, and most Canadian

newspapers as well, published the "Address to the Democracy of Ohio"

which the exile had issued from his base in Niagara, Canada West. Even

George Brown of the Toronto Globe published the "Address" -- without

editorial comment.21

Vallandigham's bid for publicity coincided with news of draft riots

emanating from New York City. Canadian newspapers gave much more

space to the New York draft riots of July 13-16 than to Vallandigham

and his "Address." Most Republican newspapers in the United States, on

the other hand, denounced both Vallandigham and his "Address." Some

even charged that the ostracized Ohioan had connived with Confederate

agents to plan the New York draft riots, publishing a forged letter to

give respectability to their lies. For good measure, Republican editors

charged that the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, which ended

disastrously at Gettysburg, had been suggested by Vallandigham while

he was an exile in the Confederacy. The same was said of the raid of

Confederate cavalry commander John H. Morgan into Indiana and Ohio

-- the Morgan raid supposedly being a signal for Vallandigham's followers

to rise in revolt and establish a "Northwest Confederacy."²² Vallandigham,

of course, was incensed at the lies manufactured about him. He termed

those linking him to the Morgan raid both "ridiculous and desperate,"

and he, as always, believed that time would vindicate him and unmask

his calumniators.23

News from the States was not fully favorable to Vallandigham's candi-

dacy for the governorship of Ohio. The Union victories at Gettysburg

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and Vicksburg curbed peace sentiment, for the crusade for compromise

fluctuated with the vicissitudes of war, increasing with Union defeats

and diminishing with Union victories. John Brough, the Republican candi-

date who competed with Vallandigham for the governorship of Ohio,

campaigned zealously and effectively, labeling the exile a traitor. Several

prominent Ohio Democrats sulked in their tents, preferring Brough to

Vallandigham. Rumors made the rounds that Democratic party strategists

tried to get the exile to withdraw from the gubernatorial contest, giving

the nomination to someone who had a better chance of being elected.

One very prominent Ohio Democrat was reported to have conceded the

election and to have predicted Vallandigham's defeat by 50,000 votes.²⁴

Vallandigham tried to rally the Democratic forces in Ohio by writing

letters to be read at party rallies or published in the press. Occasionally,

Ohio Democrats visited Vallandigham at his Canadian retreat to refill

their cup of hope. There were other visitors, too. The exile's wife and

ten-year-old son came up from Dayton for an extended visit. Judge

John C. Fulton, of nearby Erie County, arrived with a band of Democratic

pilgrims anxious to visit their prophet; after imbibing freely of Canadian

whiskey the celebrants talked of hanging abolitionists and enthroning

Vallandigham.25 The editor of the St. Catharines Evening Journal wrote,

"Yankees can't stand Canadian whiskey. There is too much fight in it."²⁶

Quite a number of Canadians visited the Clifton House to see the fellow

who had stirred up such a fuss in his own country and who styled himself

a martyr to free speech. Charles Lindsey, editor of the Toronto Leader,

stopped at the Clifton House while taking a trip to Buffalo. The trip

turned into a busman's holiday, for editor Lindsey reported on his visit

with Vallandigham to his readers. He found the exile "exceedingly amiable

in disposition," a "through gentleman, " and a fellow possessing "great

probity" and a superior intellect -- Republican critics had led him to

believe he would meet an ogre or a barbarian.²⁷

George Brown, who edited the Globe and supported the John Sandfield

Macdonald ministry, could not pass by an opportunity to jab his fellow-

editor and slap Vallandigham. Brown, who had set a rather raucous tone

for politics, criticized Canadians who "toadied" to the exile, fussing and

courting him in Quebec or Niagara. He advised his readers to treat

Vallandigham "with civility," but in view of his anti-British tirades and

his "scurrilous tongue," Canadians ought not "fawn over him" or pay

homage "in the slightest degree." Brown charged that, early in the war,

in his comments upon the Trent affair, Vallandigham had insulted England

and used invective against Her Majesty's government. "If it had been

possible to bring on a war between Britain and America," editorialized

Brown, "Vallandigham is the man who would have done it."28

Neither Vallandigham the exile nor Lindsey of the Leader relished

Brown's double-barreled blast against them. The irritated exile composed

an anonymous letter, signed "An American," and gave it to Lindsey when

the editor of the Leader passed through Niagara on his way back from

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Buffalo. Lindsey published Vallandigham's short letter, withholding the

identity of the author from his readers. The letter called Brown's charges

"unjust in temper and spirit" and erroneous as to fact, contending that

the Globe had been guilty of misquoting as well as selecting from context

to pervert meaning. It chided Brown and the Globe for taking the side

of Lincoln and the abolitionists and for assailing a man of courage who

was a martyr to the cause of civil rights. The letter-writer promised to

obtain exact quotations from Vallandigham's speeches in congress and

to prove Brown and the Globe in error.29

Brown refused to retreat. In the editorial columns of the Globe he

restated his contention that the exile should not be "feted, caressed, and

petted." Then Brown quoted at length from Vallandigham's speeches of

December 1861 and January 1862 in congress. He omitted quotation

marks within one of Vallandigham's statements to make a better case

against him. "He is a well-known Anglophobiac," concluded Brown, "who

never missed a chance of libelling Great Britain, until he had to fly to

her dominions for safety."³⁰ Some of Brown's political allies, all sym-

pathetic to John Sandfield Macdonald's government, joined in the attack

upon Vallandigham and the Canadians who had befriended him. The

editor of the London Free Press ridiculed the Grand Trunk Railroad for

playing "the lackey" to Vallandigham, while the editor of the Chatham

Patriot parroted the Globe's comments. "For our part," stated an editorial

note in the Patriot, "we look upon Mr. Vallandigham as being as great

a rebel at heart against the United States as Jefferson Davis." That editor

thought that Vallandigham should have shown his true colors by enlisting

in the Confederate army. Furthermore, the editor of the Patriot wondered

why some "Grit organs," like the Chatham Journal and the Toronto

Leader, sympathized with slavery, secessionism, and Satan.31

Vallandigham, meanwhile, wrote to a former congressman friend to

beg for a copy of the official proceedings of the United States Congress

of 1861-62, for he wanted the documents which would enable him to

reply more specifically to Brown's charges. He wanted to prove that

Brown had misquoted him and had dropped quotation marks in the

process.32 The exile also sought new quarters, for the keeper of the

Clifton House no longer viewed Vallandigham as a desirable tenant. It

was reported that Lord Lyons, British minister to the United States,

William H. Seward, and other officials would visit Niagara Falls and take

a trip to Toronto. The Clifton House could well serve as their Canadian

headquarters, but it would be unthinkable for Seward and Vallandigham

to be under the same roof or in the same hotel.33 Furthermore, some one

thousand or more persons had stopped at the Clifton House over a two-week

period, either to visit Vallandigham or gape at him -- perhaps to see

if he possessed horns and a forked tail. Sometimes the American pilgrims

drank too much liquor and embarrassed both Vallandigham and the

proprietor of the Clifton House.34 So on August 1 the exile moved from

the Clifton House to the Table Rock Hotel, an inn and curio shop operated

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by Saul Davis on the outskirts of Niagara. Vallandigham, however, was

not fully satisfied with his new quarters, and he soon took a scouting

trip to Windsor, opposite Detroit, to investigate the possiblity of moving

his base to that community.35

Early in August, Vallandigham had a second opportunity to meet

some of the most notable Canadians of his day. Edward W. Watkin, the

English financier and promoter, led a delegation of prominent Quebec

citizens to Niagara Falls, to meet Charles Mackay, then living in New

York City as the correspondent of the London Times. Watkin's party

included Thomas D'Arcy McGee, who had combined literature and politics

with unusual success, and Charles J. Brydges, who had honored Vallan-

digham with a party at the Stadacona Club when the exile first came

to Quebec. It also included Alexander G. Dallas, onetime chief factor of

the Hudson's Bay Company, but at the time serving as governor of Prince

Rupert's Land, and Professor Henry Y. Hind, whose reports on the

land lying between Winnipeg and the Rockies stirred the imagination of

Canadians and made his name a household word. Watkin, leader of the

deputation, was in the midst of negotiations to transfer the vast holdings

of the Hudson's Bay Company to the English government. Watkin and

McGee, setting the stage for the possible unification of Canada, hoped

to persuade Mackay to endorse their plans and to lay their "new schemes"

before the English people through the London Times.³⁶ Vallandigham,

quite by accident, would be in the vicinity where historic events were

being planned and discussed and where the dream of a new Canada

was being expressed and advanced.

While waiting for Mackay to come from New York City, Watkin and

McGee hunted up Vallandigham and enjoyed a most pleasant visit. McGee,

who had once resided in the States (editing newspapers in Boston and

New York City), had many questions to ask about the Irish element in

Ohio and the Midwest. McGee knew that most Irish-Americans in the

States voted the Democratic ticket, opposed emancipation of the slaves,

and sympathized with Vallandigham. McGee and Watkin invited Vallan-

digham to accompany them to a "Reform Pic-Nic" or a "Clear Grit

gathering" at nearby Drummondville. The next morning Watkin, McGee,

and Dallas called for Vallandigham in a carriage and the four observers

went to view a Canadian political rally. Two thousand carriages and

wagons took part in a three-mile-long procession which ended in Kerr's

Grove near Drummondville. The political rally featured several speakers,

half a dozen bands, and a sumptuous dinner.³⁷ Vallandigham and McGee

had places of honor on the platform. The affair must have reminded

Vallandigham of happier days, when he was so often the lion of the

occasion at political rallies in Ohio.

Charles Mackay of the Times also had a chance to meet Vallandigham

and exchange pleasantries. Mackay noted that United States spies, pro-

fessional and amateur, were as thick as flies in the Niagara area. They

"hung around" the hotel, some sitting "Yankee fashion," "balancing their

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chairs." They jotted down with whom Vallandigham walked and with

whom he talked; they relentlessly sought the names of those who dined

with the exile.³⁸

As soon as Mackay returned to New York City and Watkin's contingent

departed for Quebec, Vallandigham wrote his second letter to the editor

of the Toronto Leader. The documents he had previously requested of

his congressman-friend had belatedly arrived, so Vallandigham set to

work to prove that Brown of the Globe had misquoted him and mis-

represented his stand of January 1862. The exile pointed out that, by

omitting quotation marks, Brown had attributed someone else's state-

ments to Vallandigham -- "creating prejudice against a stranger and

an exile" who had sought the protection of a foreign flag. Again Vallan-

digham retained his anonymity, once more signing the letter "An Ameri-

can."³⁹ The exile's able epistolizing put Brown at a disadvantage, and

several Canadian editors rebuked both Brown and his Globe. The Toronto

Patriot and the St. Catharines Journal, for example, jeered Brown after

Vallandigham had pinned him to the mat.40 But Brown still refused to

retreat. He boldly and baldly restated his contention that Vallandigham

was "a traitor to his own people" as well as "a bitter enemy of England."41

While carrying on his war of words with Brown and the Globe, Vallan-

digham gave considerable attention to his campaign for the governorship

of Ohio. He continued to write letters to be read at political rallies and

to encourage his friends to increase their efforts in his behalf. His quiet

confidence and his implicit faith that truth and Vallandigham would

triumph served to inspire the many who called to renew their political

faith or shone through the letters he wrote to his Ohio friends.42

In mid-August Vallandigham took time out from his campaign activities

to visit Quebec again. Mr. and Mrs. Vallandigham, their son Charles,

and some Ohio friends started the long and leisurely trip down the St.

Lawrence River.43 The forest-covered shores and the enchanting scenery

entranced the travelers and turned their attention away from the world

of harsh reality.

On the evening of August 18, the travelers arrived in Quebec and

secured quarters at the St. Louis Hotel. The exile then had a chance to

get reacquainted with some of his Quebec friends. Thomas D'Arcy McGee

invited Vallandigham to visit the legislative assembly, then in session.

On the evening of the nineteenth, the exile occupied a seat in the legislative

assembly, to the left of the speaker. The visitor witnessed a long and

lively session -- one which began at three o'clock in the afternoon and

continued more than an hour beyond midnight. McGee, the exile's host

on the floor, challenged the ministry on the contested Essex election. It

was one of the finest orations of the entire session. Cheers, laughter, and

applause punctuated McGee's oratorical effort, and shouts of "No! No!"

and "Hear! Hear!" came more often than usual.44 Supporters of the

John Sandfield Macdonald government also had their say as the debate

grew more heated and more bitter. The very narrow margin which

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Macdonald's Liberal party held in the house during the eighth parliament

made every debate and every question the more important. The government

successfully postponed the decision in the contested Essex election, per-

haps recalling to Vallandigham the time he had contested an election

and had to wait nearly six months for a favorable decision.

The next day Vallandigham again visited the legislative assembly as

McGee's guest. This time the exile heard the Irish-Canadian orator defend

him and castigate his Canadian critics. Earlier McGee had written a

letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette about rumors that an invasion

from the United States was a possibility. The New York Herald had

engaged in fist-shaking at Canada, and the United States seemed to be

in a hurry to complete Fortress Montgomery at Rouse's Point, but

forty-five miles south of Montreal. Back-alley rumors in Washington, D. C.,

also referred to plans for an invasion of Canada. McGee's letter of August

8, 1863, to the editor of the Montreal Gazette brought the rumors above-

board: "The plan contemplated at Washington for the invasion of Canada

is to march 100,000 men up to the district of Montreal to cut the connec-

tion between Upper and Lower Canada . . . and to force a separation of

the provinces."⁴⁵ McGee's chief motive for airing the rumors seemed to

be to embarrass the government and to pressure the ministry to reconsider

the "Militia Bill" -- the very measure upon which the John Sandfield

Macdonald government had fallen the previous May. George Brown, who

used the influence of the Toronto Globe to prop up the Macdonald ministry,

seized upon McGee's letter to ridicule the letter-writer and to slap Vallan-

digham again. Brown sarcastically suggested that Vallandigham had

served as McGee's "chief informer" and that the exile had a surreptitious

pipeline to Washington.⁴⁶ With Vallandigham sitting at his elbow, McGee

explained to the assembly why he had written his letter of August 8

to the Montreal Gazette. Then he stated that the informant was a minister

in the cabinet (Luther H. Holton) and not Vallandigham. He then paid

his respects to "the honorable exile" and spanked Brown and the Globe

for violating the principles of hospitality and decency. The Globe, said

McGee, made an "unfair, ungenerous attack upon a stranger seeking a

secure and quiet refuge" in Canada -- "he had come within our gates

asking only a peaceful home which his country had denied."⁴⁷ It was

sweet music to the exile to hear one of the most brilliant orators who

ever graced Canadian public life befriend and defend him. Several

Canadian newspapers followed McGee's lead, also defending Vallandigham

and scolding Brown -- it was no coincidence that each of these papers

opposed the Macdonald government. "Il ressort done de tout cela," wrote

the editor of Le Journal de Quebec, "que M. Vallandigham n'est pas un

delateur et que le Globe est un calomniateur."⁴⁸

After his public vindication, Vallandigham and his family headed for

Windsor, the small city he had selected as his new Canadian base.⁴⁹ He

arrived at the Grand Trunk depot in Windsor early in the evening of

August 24, quite unnoticed and unheralded. With carpetbag in hand

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VALLANDIGHAM AS AN EXILE                                      163

 

(and accompanied by his wife, son, and sister-in-law), he walked to the

Hirons House, at the corner of Sandwich and Quellette streets, a short

block south of the depot.

A Canadian editor, who happened to witness the exile's arrival in

Windsor, thought him "an ordinary looking fellow" -- one whom a

phrenologist would have judged to possess but little "caution, conscientious-

ness, or veneration." "On the whole," the editor observed, "Vallandigham

looks more the foreigner than the Yankee."⁵⁰

The American exile found Windsor to be a friendly city of about three

thousand residents. Its proximity to Detroit meant that Michigan Demo-

crats would come to call, and its nearness to Toledo gave Ohio Democrats

a chance to communicate readily. Vallandigham rented a two-room suite

on the second floor of the Hirons House. His reception room faced the

river, affording the occupant a splendid view of the city of Detroit. He

could also see the United States gunboat Michigan moored in the middle

of the stream. The ship's shotted Dahlgren seemed to bear upon his

bedroom window. The Michigan symbolized the armed might of the

United States -- a might that could be used to keep him from setting

foot upon his country's soil.

Vallandigham's arrival in Windsor alarmed federal authorities in

Detroit, and they asked their superiors what to do if he crossed the

river. "If Vallandigham crosses," replied one superior, "he is to be at

once arrested and sent under a strong guard direct to Fort Warren."51

Some of the bolder Democrats of the Midwest wanted Vallandigham to

defy federal authorities and return to claim the rights and privileges to

which he was entitled as a citizen of Ohio and the United States. By

tarrying in Canada and refusing to claim his rights, wrote the editor of

the Chicago Times, Vallandigham forfeited the support of the Ohio

Democracy.⁵² The editor of the Democratic-oriented Detroit Free Press

used Vallandigham's arrival in Windsor as an excuse for another attack

upon President Lincoln. "He [Vallandigham] was arrested," editorialized

Henry Walker, "for no crime known to the law, tried by no tribunal

recognized as having any cognizance of crimes committed by man in

civil life, sentenced to a punishment never heard of in any free country,

and arbitrarily changed by the President to one not recognized by the

Constitution."53

The day after Vallandigham's arrival at Windsor, a three-man com-

mittee of Detroit Democrats called upon the exile to arrange for an

official welcome. Then, that evening, Judge Cornelius Flynn of Detroit

led "a welcoming party" across the river and to the Hirons House.

Judge Flynn, as spokesman for the delegation, assured the exile that

posterity would depict him as a fearless champion of civil rights and

dauntless defender of constitutional privileges. He assured Vallandigham

that his stay in Windsor would be brief -- until Ohio citizens repudiated

"the unfaithful public servants" at the polls on October 13. The exile

replied briefly and moderately. He counseled obedience to the constitution

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• 14
 

VALLANDIGHAM AS AN EXILE                                     165

 

and the laws, stating that the ballot was the true and proper remedy

to regain liberty and effect reunion. There was no trace of bitterness,

but a quiet confidence that the future would right wrongs and repay him

in full measure.⁵⁴

In the days which followed, an almost unbroken string of visitors--

admirers mixed with the curious--beat a path to Vallandigham's door.

Once, for example, a force of Toledo firemen, in Detroit for some com-

petitive games, crossed the river to give "three cheers" for Vallandigham

and free speech.55

Ohio Republicans who wanted Vallandigham disgraced and defeated

on October 13 expressed indignation over the compliments paid to the

exile. "He has changed his base," wrote a Republican editor who noticed

that Vallandigham had moved from Niagara to Windsor, "but not his

baseness."⁵⁶ The Republican-minded editor of the Cleveland Leader wrote

of the many "skedaddlers" from the North and the numerous "blackguards"

from the South congregating in Windsor. "Probably the society of these

scoundrels," wrote the editor, "is what attracts the banished convict to

Windsor."⁵⁷ To radical Republicans, the terms "Vallandigham" and "trea-

son" were synonymous.⁵⁸

In the weeks preceding the October 13 elections, the tide began to

turn sharply against the exile. Effective Republican campaigning, coupled

with Union military victories, brightened Lincoln's sky and darkened

Vallandigham's hopes of victory. Prospects of a civil war in Ohio if

Vallandigham were elected scared the wary and caused them to vote

against the exile.⁵⁹ Then too, war prosperity and good wheat prices helped

the Republicans. The generation of nationalism made many view the

Lincoln administration and the government as one. Lincoln's party, thus,

held all the trump cards--having the money, the energy, and patriotism

on its side.⁶⁰

October 13 proved to be an unlucky day for Clement L. Vallandigham.

Although he polled a surprising number of votes--more than any other

losing candidate in the history of Ohio gubernatorial elections--the

exile went down to defeat by 100,000 votes. President Lincoln, jubilant

over the election returns in Ohio, sent a telegram to the governor of the

state: "Glory to God in the highest. Ohio has saved the Union."⁶¹ George

Brown of the Globe also expressed pleasure with the exile's defeat; he

gazed into his crystal ball and prophesied that the Ohio election returns

would enhance Lincoln's chance of being reelected in 1864.62 Time proved

Brown to be a true prophet.

After Vallandigham's defeat in the Ohio gubernatorial contest of

October 13, Canadians promptly lost interest in the exile--the election

returns had the effect of transforming a prominent person into a nonentity.

Even for Vallandigham, the months which followed the election were

anti-climactic. He, however, seemed to accept his defeat in good grace

and he urged his Ohio friends to renew faith in their time-tested principles

and await the day when reason would push emotion aside.⁶³ He exchanged

• 15
 

letters with William C. ("Colorado") Jewett, a self-styled "peace emissary" who dreamed that Emperor Napoleon III might restore the Union and end the war through mediation.64 On November 14 a large group of students from the University of Michigan visited the exile. His advice was like that of a father to a son--study hard, aspire to lead a goodly life, be patriotic, cultivate courage, and adhere to principles at all costs. "It is easy to be a politician or a demagogue," he told the attentive students. "It is easy to sail with the wind or float with the current."65 Unwittingly, he was but justifying his own course. As usual, Vallandigham devoted much of his time to reading and study. He had a genuine love of the classics and he combed them for quotations to incorporate into his speeches or letters. He had an especial fondness for biography and for history, and he drank from the wellsprings of history to justify his own course of action. The Christmas season came

• 16
 

VALLANDIGHAM AS AN EXILE                                       167

 

in with the end of the year, heralded by heavy snowfalls and wintry blasts.

He spent a lonely Christmas, separated from his wife and son, who had

returned to Dayton and Ohio in late September. The halo of the martyr

lost some of its glow. The American shore seemed farther away than

it had when he first arrived in Windsor, and the U.S.S. Michigan, still

anchored in the river outside his window, reminded him that he was

an exile and that fate had frowned upon him.

He hoped against hope that the supreme court of the United States

might bring him vindication. Through his attorney, Vallandigham had

earlier applied for a writ of certiorari to review and annul the proceedings

of the military commission which had "illegally" tried him in an area

where the civil courts were open. The United States Supreme Court,

however, side-stepped the question, decided it lacked appellate jurisdiction

in such cases, and avoided a clash with the military while the war was

in progress.66 "The Supreme Court," wrote one of Vallandigham's Ohio

friends, "has no jurisdiction in matters of individual liberty, unless the

party claiming redress can prove that he was outraged according to law!"67

During the early months of 1864 word reached Windsor that mobs,

usually led by furloughed Union soldiers, had destroyed a half dozen

Democratic newspaper offices in the upper Midwest. Even the office of

the Dayton Empire, a paper which Vallandigham had once owned and

edited, felt the vengeance of King Mob. Rioters, invading the office and

the printing plant, destroyed much of the equipment and threatened to

hang the editor.68 Vallandigham, who had previously claimed to revere

the law and the constitution, joined the Democrats who were preaching

the law of reprisal, advocating "instant, summary and ample reprisals

upon the persons and property of the men . . . who, by language and

conduct, are always inciting these outrages."69

Some Democrats felt that their safety lay in organizing a secret society,

one that would serve both as a mutual protection society and as an organi-

zation to advance their party's fortunes. It would serve the Democratic

party as the Union League had so effectively served the Republican party.

Four midwestern Democrats devised such a paper organization and went

to Windsor to persuade Vallandigham to accept the headship. Thus, by

waving a wand, the Sons of Liberty came into being and the exile

assumed the title of "Supreme Commander." Vallandigham, as titular

head of the Sons of Liberty, never issued an order or called a meeting.

Yet he, like the few who belonged to the paper-based organization, wanted

Republicans to believe that a widespread secret Democratic society existed

to defend civil rights, secure free elections, and advance the party's wel-

fare.⁷⁰ The public utterances of Vallandigham and the handful who

belonged to the Sons of Liberty helped to write another myth into Civil

War history.⁷1

Vallandigham, meanwhile, grew restless in his Canadian retreat. He

wanted to return to Ohio to engage in the crusade for peace and com-

promise--he had become the symbol of that movement. He wanted to

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168                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

exert influence in the coming presidential contest. It was worth risking

re-arrest to remove the cloak of anonymity which his absence from Ohio

had cast over him. Furthermore, his mother was seriously ill--she would

not have long to live--and he was tired of the long absence from home

and family. Then too, Confederate agents in Windsor embarrassed him

and gave his critics a chance to claim that Vallandigham was willing to

play their game. There was also the possibility that President Lincoln

might ignore him if he returned or might fear to re-arrest him. The exile,

therefore, decided to leave Canada and return to Ohio.

During the night of June 14 Vallandigham crossed the river and took

a train out of Detroit headed for Toledo and Ohio. A disguise enabled

him to escape the detection of the ever watchful United States agents.

The next day he appeared at a huge Democratic rally in Hamilton, Ohio.

"He came unheralded from his exile," wrote a devotee of Vallandigham,

"and his sudden appearance was like an apparition from the clouds."⁷²

Canadian newspapers which had not mentioned Vallandigham's name

for months, reported on the exile's return to the States. Some even sum-

marized the speech he gave at Hamilton, Ohio, and reported that United

States agents did not arrest him.⁷³

After his return to his home and his country, Vallandigham resumed

the practice of law and again became the stormy petrel of Ohio politics.

But in the days which followed he never again twisted the tail of the

British lion as he was wont to do in his earlier political career. Perhaps

he felt he owed a debt of gratitude to Canada for allowing him to live

in that country for almost a year. He owed a debt to Thomas D'Arcy McGee

and other prominent Canadians who had befriended and defended him.

"La reconnaissance," Jean Baptiste Massieu had earlier written to the

Abbe Sicard, "est la memoire du coeur."74

 

THE AUTHOR: Frank L. Klement is a

professor of history at Marquette Univer-

sity and the author of The Copperheads in

the Middle West.

• 18