Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-29
VOL. XIV.
Oblo Statesman,
[From the Cincinnati Commerciall
SPEECH OF
HON.C.L.VALLANDIGHAM,
( At
MOUNT VERNON, KNOX CO., OHIO,
THURSDAY, OoToHER "a, 1867

ON
THURSDAY, OCTOBER "a, 1867.
First, men of Knox, give fervent thanks
to Almighty God for the blessings of this
day. Next, to you, my friends, l make
hearty acknowledgment of the earnest, de-
voted, passionate enthusiasm of this recep-
tion. There is no speech nor language, dead
or living. strong enough or cOpious enoug gh
to express the emotions of my heart at this.
moment.
Gould embod7 and unbosom now
That WHICH is most within me-could wreak
Ny thoughts upon expression. and thus throw
Soul; heart. mind passions, FEELINGS strong weak.
All that would have sought, and all seek,
Bear. know, feel, and yet breathe. into word,
And that word were lightning, would speak"
But pardon me, men of Knox. ii, subdu-
ing my own swelling but voiceless thoughts
and emotions, beg that yours, too, may be
hushed for moment, While calmly, and,
through historic narrative..I call your
memories back to the events which to-day
we commemorate. And | am sure, fur
my friends, that you will extern
uate, at least, the seeming. not real, egot-
ism, which demands continued reference
to myself as principal actor in the scene.
-Four years and six months ago, stood
upon this very spot, to address thousands
VI NY -CltiLCuSs doSCmoiCo OpCHiy
and publicly, under the law and according
to the constitution, to consult for the COM
mon good, to instruct their representative.
and to petition for redress of grievances. l
myself, too, had been proclaimed a candi-
date for nomination to the office of Gov
ernor of Ohio. Wherefore the people had
q double right to hear, and two fold
claim to be heard. Yet my presence upon
that day was almost constrained. Engage
ments required me elsewhere. But yield
ing to the urgent entreaties ofyour messen-
ger, specially deputed Tor the purpose, |
came, not as orator of the day, but to fill
a place in the programme of your proceed
ings, and l spoke feebly, indeed. vet wit,
words of honesty and truth. That other
speech, making an issue with the petty ty-
rants of the day, and responsive to ''Gener-
al Order Number 49," and the other orders
dated at Indianapolis, and more atrOcious
still, forbidding all criticism of the acts aud
policies of the Lincoln Administration. was
delivered the evening previous, upon con-
sultation and alter meditation, from the
steps and amid the columns of the Capitol
at Columbus. But the spies and hireliugs
of him whose name loathe to utter. Tap-
pause,] stripped of their military uniform.
and dishonoring for while. the garb of
honest citizens, bad been ordered to Mount
Vernon; and here leaning upon the plat
form aud tainting the air of heaven
with their foul presence, they did
a work of infamy without example in
military annals. [Applause.l They did it
in secrecy, and they did it in safety. Had
they been known, and their mission UNDER
stood, the scattered members of their
wrenched and tossed by the arms and
hands of ten thousand infuriate freemen,
would have stTewed the ground, pray to
lean dogs and hungry vultures. gOrging
and growing over carcass and limb lap.
plause], if vulture and dog could consent
to crunch, and humble, and feed upon
flesh such as theirs. [Applause.l 'Tis fit
that the names of these miscreaDts should
live in infamy. Theyl were "Captain II.
r. Hill, of the 115th regiment Ohio Volun-
teer Infantry" son of Sandford c. Hill, of
Columbiana county, Ohio, and Captain
John A. Means" of the same regiment,
resident in the county of Jefferson, Ohio
One of the number had narrowly escaped
arrest and prosecution for larceny while at
college. Applause.] And now, men of
Knox, allow me to continue this merely
personal history in the words of another,
for the exact truth and accuracy of whose
narrative fully avouch:
Returning home the next day, Mr.. VAL
landigham first heard rumors OF his in
tended arrest. On Sunday, the 81 of Nav,
they became more rife, and his friends pro-
posed to organize to resist, as in the year pre-
eceding, but he declined, saying that if this
were done now he should be again obliged
to remaini in Day ton all summer,a aud thus be
unable to canvass the State; since. if it was
the purpose of the Administration to arrest
him, it would be effected the first time he
should leave home. and when he would be
incapable of resistance. On the 4th an Ad-
journal announced that otfi-
GERS had been sent up in disguise to Mt.
Vernon to watch and report him, and that
he would have trouble. At half-past two
O'Clock the next morning, May s. 1868, he
was aroused from his slumbers by loud
knocking at his front door,. Rising ana
inqniring from the window Whist was
wanted, the officer in command of the de-
tachment of soldiers, answered that he had
been sent by General Burnside to arrest
him. Mr.. V. denied the right of military
arrest, and refused to come down. After
rel eated threats to shoot, intermingled
with entreaties, the officer ordered the front
door to be forced, but it was found too
strong, and a door in the rear was finally
broken down with an axe, and next the
door of an upper bed-chamber, and finally
third door opening into the room where,
after dressing, he had retired. The house
was now full of soldiers, though the officer
in command had not ventured himself to
enter. Half a score of muskets were point
ed instantly at him, whereupon he said
You have now broken open my house and
overpOwered ne by superior force, and |
am obliged to surrender"
And, men of Knox, is it not one of those
almost mysterious condolences of history,
that four years and six months later, the
then Secretary of War. Edwin NJ. Stanton.
should himself have been obliged, in the
self-same words, to eXclaim. in the bitter
ne IS of reluctant exit, from the department
to which he had SO long clung with the te-
nacity of death, 81 yield now to superior
force!'' How striking and significa, t,
too. in the light of this incident, is the in
vocation of the great poet of passion:
20, thou who never yet of human wrong
4 Lett the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!"
HE then passed through the shattered
panels of his doors into the street; the bu-
gle sounded the recall. and, surrounded by
soldiery, he was marched to the depot, and
thence carried by the cars to Cincinnati,
where. soon after daylight, he was taken to
Here he remained till evening, when. by
order of Burnside, who had become great
ly alarmed lest there should be a popular
outbreak and rescue. he was hurried across
the river to Newport Barracks, and there
locked up for the night. Next morning he
was Obliged to witness from mis- window
the roll-call at reveilie, with the stars and
stripes waving over him and the band play
ing Hail. Columbia, Happy Land =
Soon after he was taken again across
into Cincinnati, and thrust before the
military commission, upon charge and
specification setting forth that, in vio-
lation of Order 3S, at Mount Vernon, on
the lst of May. in public speech to the peo-
pie, he had declared the war to be cruel and
unnecessary not waged for the preserva-
tion OF the Union, but for the purpose OF
nry in ri i'm r
ism--a war for the freedom of the blacks
and the enslavement of the whites; that
he had denounced Order 3S as usurpatior
of power, and declared that the sooner the