Clement V: Peace Now!

Off with King Abe's head? (1859; LOC - C-DIG-ppmsca-26734)

On July 11, 1861 The New-York Times reported on a speech given in the U.S. House of Representatives by Ohio Representative Clement Vallandigham. The speech occurred during a debate on a bill to finance the military and/or a bill dealing with the collection of duties on imports. Vallandigham refers to President Lincoln’s July 4 (or5) request for 400 million dollars and 400,000 troops to fight the Confederacy:

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, July 10. …

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM proceeded to review the Presidents Message, and after referring to the call for four hundred thousand volunteers and four hundred millions of dollars, said that when the House of Representatives became a mere machine, to register the edicts of the President, it was time to abolish it. But there were gentlemen here who were firmly united and determined that their own rights and privileges as representatives of the people shall be preserved in spirit and in letter. At all events, there are those who would assert and exercise their rights with becoming decency and moderation, fully and freely, and regardless of the consequences. Instead of the President communicating, as required by the Constitution, the state of the country, the House had before them a vindication of his own policy, which has precipitated a bloody and terrible revolution. The President admitted that to-day we are in the midst of a civil war — not a petty insurrection, which might be suppressed in twenty days by a proclamation and the employment of three months’ militia. He had totally under-estimated the character of the revolution with which we have now to deal, and had also usurped power which the Constitution expressly confers on Congress. The President had omitted, while making out his case against the Disunionists and Secessionists of the South, and which he might have made much stronger, the still stronger case against the Abolitionists of the North and West. He had not alluded so much as a word to the “irrepressible conflict” and other causes which superinduced the action of the South. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM expressed his astonishment

View from House of some dissent - Washington from Capitol roof June 27, 1861 (LOC - LC-USZ62-78348)

that the Administration had ignored the history of the last session when Congress refused to supply the General Government with the means of war against the South. Every principal proposition for an adjustment of our difficulties came from gentlemen of the South, with the exception of that of Mr. KELLOGG, of Illinois, and they all knew the fate which the latter met. In the subsequent elections the people ratified or approved of the policy of peace. Secession was then melting away, but it was strengthened and invigorated by the policy of the present Administration. In the course of his remarks he alluded to the ill-advised passage of a high protective tariff. In further argument he charged the President with usurpation of power which would have cost a sovereign of Europe his head, and severely reprobated the progress of affairs which threatened popular liberty and the rights dear to freemen. He stood to-day where he stood on the 4th of March last — where the Democratic and Constitutional Union Party then stood, and where he believed a majority of the people of the United States then stood. He was for peace — speedy, immediate, honorable peace, with still its blessings. His duty should be discharged freely, calmly, honestly, and regardless of consequences, with the approving voice of conscience, void of offence, and with an approving public judgment, which will follow after some time be passed. These, God help him, were his trust and support.

According to Wikipedia, Clement Laird Vallandigham, who servede in Congress from 1858-1863

…was a vigorous supporter of constitutional states’ rights. He believed the federal government had no power to regulate a legal institution, which slavery then was. He also believed the states had a right to secede and that the Confederacy could not constitutionally be conquered militarily. Vallandigham supported the Crittenden Compromise and proposed on February 20, 1861 that the Senate and the electoral college be divided into four sections, each with a veto. He strongly opposed every military bill, leading his opponents to charge that he wanted the Confederacy to win the war. Vallandigham was the acknowledged leader of the Copperheads, and in May 1862 he coined their slogan, “To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was.”