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The Death Of Mr. Vallandigham

The Death Of Mr. Vallandigham image
Parent Issue
Day
23
Month
June
Year
1871
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The death of Mr. Vallandigham will be sincerely regretted by his fellow-Democrats in all parts of the country, and by none more sincerely than those who have not shared the extreme opinions which, until the lato Ohio Conventiou, had in hun a foremost ropresentative. He was a politician in whoin an unbounded ambition perhaps outran the measure of his faculties; but he was a politician of distinct principies and incorruptible integrity. His political course was guided by his intellectual judgments, and he took the obloguy which they brought upon him during the trying days of our civil war without blenching, without abating a single jot their steadfast utterance. Iinprisonment and exile were the punishnients laid upon him for opinion's sake. But these becamo a crown of political niartyrdom upon his head and a lasting stigma upou the memory of Mr. Lincoln wlio had forgottcn, and upon the names of Stanton and Burnside who had never learned, the first letssons of civil liberty. This, indeed, was Mr. Vallandigham'g chief distinction in the politics of his time. Bofore the war he had never gone beyond scores of his contemporaries in the application to affairs, or the advocacy, of the principies of a pure Deinocracy. And a certain aoftrbity of temper might have hindered his further promotion despite his unquestioned capacity of work and the intensity of his mental energies. At the outbreak of the war hc joined hands with those who sought to l&ad tho Democratie larty into puths fatal alike to it and to the country ; and during the win-, by his'ostentatious and sincere boldness, he contributed in no slight dcgieu to paralj-ze the popular effect of tho rejection of his opinions and his leadership by the vast majority of hig party, Siuce the war he had not allied his name with ftny public measure of sound or unsound politics, until, within tho ïuonth whiuh also secs bis sad and untimely death, he camc foinvard and proclairaed, with the manly frankness and the nnhcsitating boldness which niarkcd all his politica! utteraiircs, lii.s ponviotdon fchat thq decisión of Lis party, niaturod at the East and at tlie West and fast maturing at the South, concerning tho istsues of its futuro contests, had now by liini and all who went with him (for none hud gone beyond him) to lo acknowledged and obeyed. But Mr. Yalkindighain will livo in the history of his country despitc this isolation from the progross of his party, dospito tho small ghare he has enjpyod of its public honors, and dosjiite {tat lic is c.ut off in tho veiy niaturity of ijis fiicuUios whtn a ncw and briuiant pareer scemed opening béfore him wherein all lis compatriota might have given him a heíjrty godspeed. H will long be femeniboiv, ! fói the courage and the con6tancy with which in his own party he maintaincd impopular opiniong, vhiofa if fatal to its success were fatal also to his own qdvanceraeiit. But he will chieily be remembered in this and future times for his xjHfiinuhiiiü; udvocacy and exhibition of tin Aia rian freeman's right to freely think aucl freely speak. For thig he suffercd as few of the thousands of victims sufi'crcd whojn the Lincoln, the Stantons, und the Hurnsides of our disord?red tinies tove frcm their homes out judicial warrant, imniured in diingeons, imprisoned in forte, tonuented with crue] and uimsual punishmpnts, cut off f rom thrir tYunils and the WOrld, oxiled across the border or over tho seas, or liberated without remenng the stigma ot' crimos wkich if ever alleged wrrc nover proved, and after giTÍDg Dy law the fono of justice to a complete denial of futuro redress. He bore nis ntfferings nianfully, even when tlicy were cmbittored by the rcfusal of his fcllow-citizens of Ohio to vindícate his esíimfial patriotism and their fundamental law ; and, porchance, when the passions of our civil war have passcd from the hearts of living men into the pages of history, those who shalltlun be charged with the care of "liberty guarded by law " may hold his namo in higher honor than even they whose tears

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus