New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-06-20
CLEMENT L, VALLANDIGHAM

The aRcient maxim that no man oan be
Judged fortunate or otherwise until his death,
il rs true now as it ever was. No fixed YER
dict of mans life can DO giyen before it is
finished. As long as he Is engaged actively in
affairs, there is always the possibility OF his
entering upon new field of thought or en-
deavor which may confuse all former estimates
of him and even if his life has been consistent
and harmonious, new element is sure to DO
introduced into our Judgment of his character
by the mere incident of his death. A striking
proof OF this is seen in the tone of
the comment evoked by the sudden
and tragic termination of the career OF
Clement l.. Valandigham, in the flower of his
maturity and the plenitudo of his strength.
Undoubtedly the shock and surprise of the
accident which has quenched so suddenly that
bright and ardent vitality is the cause OF
much of the charity with which people of all
shades Of opinion treat the memory of tho de-
parted agitator but below al that there is a
conviction, never avowed till now, that this
was after all remarkable man, one IN whom,
his opponents must recognize courage ana IN
tegrity, and in whom bis own part!sans
dreaded an independence and tyrannoa5
dued nor clearly comprehended.
He cherished an ambition without bounds,
and he possessed sufficient gifts of oratory,
sufficient habits of application, powers OF In
fiuencing men singly and in masses, ana ABOVE
all enough yiyacity and energy of personal
character to encourage him TO hope, with
reasonable prospect of success, for the
highest prizes. of a political career. The
very qualities which afterwards weighed so
heavily against him, at the outset OF his lilo
were the ones which gained him an Immediate
and brilliant triumph in his earliest political
efforts. II was his violence, his audacity, bis
bitter and incisive eloquence, that carried him
into the Legislature of his State and thence
into Congress, when he had barely emerged
from boyhood But while he could not be said
ever to have lost anything in intellectual
powers, and while, in fact, his work in later
years, in politics and in his profession,
showed positive advance upon the
efforts of his first days, he never seemed
to make any progress in that practical
sagacity and tact so indispensably necessary
to distinguished achievements in the public
life of this country. There was no ono VINO
opposed with more energy or more ability than
he the war measures of the Government
during the Rebellion; but he did it with 30
Httle discretion, so little regard for The actual
circumstances of the hour, that he found him
self subjected to humiliating exile with the
almost entire concurrence Of the country, and
the adoption of his name by his party as their
candidate for Governor of Ohio cost them the
most disastrous defeat that has ever marked
their history.
Now that he has gone to his grave and
taken away from us that key to his recent
startling temperance at the head OF his party
which might have been seen in his subsequent
action, there will be much discussion as to the
motive and the wisdom of the attitude which
he had assumed, and into which he forced his
following. The power and the vital magnet
ism of Vallandigham were never more clearly
shown than in tho ease and rapidly we.
which he drove into line the Democratic p3.'
of several States, to take new dcpaI az
which had already been timidly urged
by dilettanti organs which now claim
to have originated the movement. UDques-
tionably, he has been, during these last few
weeks, moro kindly spoken of by the great
mass of tho people than ever before, and
now his pitiful death will gain for his memory
a tender consideration which once seemed i'm
possible. But the future may revert to the
sterner judgments of the war times 1t may
overlook his personal virtues and qualities; 1t
may find it impossible to appreciate that
devoted love and attachment to Slavery which
a more advanced civilization will regard as
simply monstrous, but which was in truth the
handspring of his life. In that case, nothing
will be left of him in history but the spectacle
of man of great gifts and apparent integrity
fighting against his country under the influence
of a sentiment he boldly disavowed, and thus
condemning himself to appear in the unattrac
tive attitude of preferring the destruction of
the Union to defeat on q question of consti-
tutional Interpretation.