Vallandigham, Clement L

Vallandigham, Clement L(aird)

(born July 29, 1820, Lisbon, Ohio, U.S.—died June 17, 1871, Lebanon, Ohio) U.S. politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1857–63), where he became a leader of the antiwar Copperheads and the secret Knights of the Golden Circle (later Sons of Liberty). As a result of his vociferous criticism of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's administration and its pursuit of the American Civil War, he was arrested and found guilty of treasonable sentiments (1863) and was sentenced to exile in the South. He soon made his way to Canada and later illegally to Ohio. While in Canada he was nominated for governor by the Ohio Peace Democrats, but he was easily defeated. He later criticized the Reconstruction policy of the Republicans as both unconstitutional and tyrannical.